Sources: Major membership changes possible for NC private schools’ athletic association
The N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association, the state’s governing body for private schools, could be making some big changes to its membership soon.
Multiple sources tell The Charlotte Observer that the NCISAA is planning to make a bylaw change that would only allow schools in North Carolina to be a member. Sources also said the association could look into the possibility of offering memberships to N.C. charter schools, which currently play in the N.C High School Athletic Association. The NCHSAA is made up of mostly public schools.
The NCISAA is still mulling the changes — according to people who spoke with The Observer under the condition of anonymity — especially as to when the “N.C. only” rule would go into effect. Currently, sources say the NCISAA is considering imposing these changes in either one or two years.
If the changes go through, it would mean that two out-of-state schools currently in the association would have to leave: Rock Hill’s Westminster Catawba and Georgia’s Rabun Gap.
NCISAA executive director Homar Ramirez, in his 10th year, said via text message that he “could not comment on Rabun Gap’s or Westminster Catawba’s long-term future” with the NCISAA. He also said the association has not made any decisions on charter schools.
The Observer was unable to reach athletic directors and executives at either out-of-state school.
Rabun Gap is a K-12 boarding school that costs up to $75,000 a year and has nearly 700 U.S. and international students from 15 states and 50 countries. About 200 of the students are in the boarding school. Although Rabun Gap sits a short drive from the N.C. border, it is a two-hour drive from Atlanta and Greenville, South Carolina, more than three hours from uptown Charlotte and more than five hours from Raleigh.
Westminster Catawba — a traditional, private Christian school — has almost 800 K-12 students and costs up to about $14,000 annually.
There have been out-of-state teams in the NCISAA before.
The NCISAA has overseen private school state tournaments since 1974. In 1991, South Carolina and Virginia schools were added to the organization, for example.
And while Westminster Catawba, for the most part, hasn’t been a state athletic power, Rabun Gap — increasingly — is building powers across multiple sports.
Rabun Gap has four straight NCISAA soccer state titles at the association’s highest and most difficult level.
Rabun Gap, which opened in 1909, started varsity football in 2009. It didn’t produce a major college recruit in its first 10 years. It had five in the 2021 season and has only gone up from there.
After four state runner-up finishes — 2014 Division III; 2020 Division I; 2021 Division I; 2023 Division I — Rabun Gap had a breakout season in 2024.
In October, Rabun Gap’s football team upset three-time defending state champion Providence Day, 46-13. It was the second straight season that Rabun Gap had beaten the nationally-ranked Chargers in the regular season.
In November, Rabun Gap beat the Chargers for the state title, which for the past two seasons has been played in Georgia.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 5:15 AM with the headline "Sources: Major membership changes possible for NC private schools’ athletic association."
