“We need to stay ahead of the game,” said Gould.

The board voted unianimously, 14-0, to remove the “his” and “her” reference from Rule 43, effective July 1, in addition to changing the language in the front of the MIAA Handbook. Continuing the conversation, MIAA associate director Sherry Bryant said, “We must address the realities of transgender and non-binary students as an association.”

Currently, the MIAA refers to a school’s database on how they identify a student. But, as Cambridge Rindge & Latin AD Tom Arria pointed out, the school database may not match how students identify themselves in school. “The student may not feel comfortable being ‘out’ to their family,” Arria said.

Moving forward, all agreed there needs to be flexibility and creativity, but consistency in any approach.

The gender issue was hardly the lone headliner of the meeting:

■ With a strong endorsement from the state baseball coaches association, and falling in line with the transition to national federation rules, the MIAA will institute a cap of 115 pitches per day, with the following breakpoints (0 days rest, 1-25 pitches; 1 day, 26-40 pitches; 2 days, 41-55 pitches; 3 days, 56-70 pitches), with one modification — if a pitcher has thrown 71-90 pitches on the day he last pitched, on his fourth day, he would be eligible to throw a max of 25 pitches.

Coaches will designate on their lineup card which players are ineligible to pitch, and the respective coaches will confirm counts every two innings.

Associate director Richard Pearson lauded the work of Oxford coach Justin Richards and the Baseball Committee for their diligence and involvement in creating the formula.

■  As a liason to the Football Committee, Pearson plans to pen a letter to the national federation, asking for a one-year pilot in the transition to 12-minute quarters, requesting to play 11-minute quarters in 2019 (there are still league/conferences that play 10-minute quarters, in addition to quarters of the same length that are utilized in Super Bowl games at Gillette Stadium to logistically schedule six championship games on one day).

■ The MIAA winter tournaments generated $1.8 million in revenue, with a net of $410,000, according to Jeff Granatino, MIAA vice president/finance, a $152,000 increase from 2018. The projected budget for fiscal year 2020 is $6,224,590, a 4.35 percent cut from 2019. “We are moving in the right direction,” said Granatino. “It is what we’ve been striving for, making reductions, and reducing expenses.”

■  Old Colony holdovers Bridgewater-Raynham and Dartmouth along with Big Three members Brockton, Durfee, and New Bedford will team up to form a five-school Southeast Conference (SEC) this fall.

“We are already playing each other in a number of sports, but this made the most sense,” said Dartmouth AD Jeff Caron. “All the athletic directors work well together.”

There will be no league champion in football this fall as Barnstable (Old Colony) is leaving for the expanded Cape & Islands League.

The SEC, along with the re-formed Greater Boston League (Everett, Malden, Medford, Revere, and Somerville) were granted “exclusion” status to help fill out their schedules going forward.

■  District E was denied, 10-4, in its request to receive a one-year extension on a waiver granted in 2018 to have four total votes, instead of two, on sport committees. Board member Ray Cosenza (Fitchburg) felt an extension would make for a seamless transition to the redistricing plan, in which Central Mass. will be divided into two districts.

■  After presiding over her final meeting, MIAA president Marilyn Slattery, also retiring as Malden High’s principal before moving to Hawaii, was presented with a rocking chair.

■  The MIAA’s annual Celebration of Excellence is scheduled for Thursday night, at the Doubletree Hotel in Milford.

Craig Larson can be reached at craig.larson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeLars.