The Kentucky High School Athletic Association is charged with upholding the integrity of high school sports. Yet, when faced with a clear breach of competitive ethics, its response was silence cloaked in technicality.

During Friday’s district championship between Martin County and Prestonsburg, a Blackcats player picked up a wristband containing Martin County’s offensive play calls and handed it to an assistant coach, who took it into the locker room. A deputy sheriff later retrieved the wristband.

The KHSAA’s answer? “There are no rules covering the use of this type of equipment.”

That is unacceptable.

If the rulebook fails to address what any reasonable person would recognize as unsportsmanlike conduct, then the rulebook needs to change.

The essence of high school athletics is competition grounded in fairness, respect and sportsmanship. When a player or coach gains access to another team’s playbook, whether intentionally or not, and does not immediately return it, they cross the ethical line.

Commissioner Julian Tackett wrote that “returning the materials would have been the right thing.” That admission alone shows the system’s failure.

The KHSAA should not depend on voluntary goodwill when fairness is at stake. It should enforce standards that make “the right thing” a requirement, not a suggestion.

The situation also raises practical questions.

Should the opposing coach have turned the item over to game officials?

Should referees have paused play?

Should there be consequences for taking possession of an opponent’s strategy materials?

The KHSAA’s rulebook currently has no answer to any of these questions.

That is precisely the problem.

When the governing body for high school sports cannot rule on a matter that goes to the heart of competition integrity, confidence in the fairness of the game erodes. Players, coaches and communities deserve better than “no rule applies.”

The issue is not about one game, team or county, but trust in the system that oversees Kentucky high school sports. To do “the right thing,” the KHSAA must review this incident, acknowledge the gap in its regulations and implement a rule that prohibits possession or use of an opponent’s play materials on the field, on the sideline or in the locker room.

Sportsmanship cannot depend on chance.

If the KHSAA does not have a rule for situations like this, it needs to get one.