Chapel Hill, N.C. — The North Carolina High School Athletic Association held their semi-annual Board of Directors meeting on Wednesday, and several action items were voted on, including the recent eligibility issues that have haunted member schools over the past year.

In November, two high-profile football teams in the Charlotte area were investigated for the use of ineligible players. West Charlotte was forced to forfeit their season, but Independence was not.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools determined that the players in question at Independence had falsified their addresses and paper work, deceiving the school. As a result, the player who forged documents was ruled ineligible for the remainder of the season and was not allowed to participate with the team.

Should that happen again, things could be quite different.

The NCHSAA developed a committee of superintendents earlier this year to put together suggestions to strengthen the eligibility rules in the state. The superintendents agreed that teams should not be required to forfeit if players falsify addresses, but the Board of Directors approved a measure Wednesday that would make a player ineligible for 365 days instead of a single season.

The new rules will take effect this fall.

The Policy Committee also focused heavily on eligibility education for coaches and athletic directors, subsequently trickling down to the athletes and their parents.

Every coach will be required to attend an educational session where a PowerPoint and DVD presentations about eligibility rules will be shown. These should touch on recruiting, residency, and custody issues. The DVD presentation, which may not be ready in time for the upcoming fall season, would be produced by the NCHSAA office.

Parents would have access to the presentations as well.

In what could be a controversial move, the NCHSAA announced that teams will share eligibility information with each member of its conference. This will act as a form of checks and balances. Some have already voiced concerns about privacy issues.

The Board of Directors also announced that a checklist will be drafted of proper practices regarding eligibility that will be used statewide, and principals and athletic directors would have to sign it. The checklist was another suggestion that came out of the superintendent meeting earlier this year.

Charlotte is not the only area that has seen eligibility issues this year. In fact, the number of ineligible players has grown exponentially over the past several years.

The Northern Durham boy's basketball team was forced to forfeit its entire season, including a PAC-Six Tournament Championship, after an ineligible player was found on their roster. The issue was initially reported to be an attendance issue, but athletic director Walt Hensler could not confirm that attendance was the issue.

"There are a number of things that could be construed into an attendance violation," Hensler said. "We've got an eligibility issue."

An Apex High School volleyball player was also found to have falsified her address last fall. She was removed from the team, but the team was not forced to forfeit any games.

A very controversial forfeiture happened last fall in Fayetteville when Douglas Byrd was forced to forfeit their football season that would have sent them to the NCHSAA playoffs for the first time in years. Parents protested outside of the school the week after the forfeits were announced, but Byrd officially ended their season 1-10 after winning five other games on the field.

At the beginning of April, Pine Forest found three players on it's boy's basketball team that had falsified their addresses as well.

Other schools, such as 4-A football state champion Hoggard, have been questioned about eligibility of players, and South Mecklenburg was forced to forfeit football games during their season.