What Are the rules for Competing in Washington State?

Washington dance/drill teams follow NFHS rules outlined in the NFHS Spirit Rules Publication as well as the rules outlined in the WIAA SOP (formerly "Bound for State") regulations and the Dance/Drill Casebook found on the MyWIAA Dance/Drill webpage.

​

What Is a Sanctioned Competition?

Non school-sponsored competitions are not sanctioned by the WIAA. The definition of "School-Sponsored" is included in the SOP regulation, available on the WIAA website.  Entry fees for school-sponsored competitions need to be processed through school ASB accounts. 
 

Competition Etiquette

• Only register for those competitions at which you are committed to compete.

• Submit registrations no later than the deadline established by the competition host.  

• Make sure registration fee arrives in a timely manner.  If it cannot be sent with the registration form, be sure to follow up with school personnel to confirm that it is being mailed. 

• Do not cancel unless there is a dire emergency.  This includes cancelling just one category.  Cancellations impact every single team involved in the competition by changing practice times, performance order, and awards.  Cancellations also impact judging; sometimes judging changes must be made at the last minute, which should be avoided.  Many coaches often feel their team is not "ready" for an event or that they have too many illnesses/injuries, students on academic probation, etc.  These are problems that many teams face and should not lead to cancellations.  (Exception:  if your school district forbids you to travel because of adverse weather conditions, always follow your school district's decision.) 

• If you do cancel, you will not get your registration fee back because many competition expenses are paid in advance of the event.

• Please be courteous and respectful of other teams' choreography by refraining from video-taping.  Our association requests that audience members only record their own team performances.  Posting to public sites such as YouTube can infringe upon copyrights.

  

Digital Audio Feedback

Audio files of judges feedback will be stored in a Google folder by school name. 

Coaches will need to submit team information to the form found on our competition registration page, for the WSDDJA to create their team folder where audio files from each competition will be uploaded.  Questions concerning audio files should be addressed to the  WSDDJA President.

​

Judges Feedback

Please complete the form found on our competition registration page to provide constructive feedback for your WSDDJA judges. This feedback will be used to provide additional training and clarification where needed.