Debate is growing among area administrators, coaches and athletes about proposed legislation that would revamp the out-of-season practice rules governing public high school sports in Virginia.
The Virginia High School League’s Executive Committee will hold a final vote on a rule change that would allow high school coaches to work with athletes throughout the school year and summer months except certain dead periods, including preseason tryouts for other sports. Currently, coaching out of season in Northern Virginia is forbidden. The executive committee’s vote is scheduled for March 7.
In the first round of voting, the executive committee passed the rule change by an 18-6-1 margin at its December meeting. If passed by two-thirds of the committee next week, the rule will go into effect on July 1.
A fervent supporter of the out-of-season practice rule changes is former Marion High activities director Mike Davidson, an Executive Committee member until earlier this month. Marion High is located in southwest Virginia near the North Carolina and Tennessee borders.
According to Davidson, the new rules would allow athletes to receive instruction from high school coaches throughout the year and ease restrictions on practice rules that are often loosely enforced and feature many gray areas.
Multiple sources throughout the state say despite December’s vote the legislation has run into serious opposition. The Northern Region has instructed its Executive Committee representative, Langley principal Bill Clendaniel, to vote against the proposal.
“I’m just not sure if rule changes like this are always that well thought out,” said Oakton football coach Joe Thompson. “The assigned listed dead periods are actually when we have the most time to work with kids and when recruiting heats up for football. There has to be a better way to do this.”
But that feeling is not universal. Many boys and girls basketball coaches have long agitated to work more directly with players during the offseason. TheNorthern Region has more stringent rules in place than the state’s other regions. No Northern Region high school coach or assistant can run summer league teams and the number of camps teams can attend are limited. That is not the case in the Eastern Region and is often cited as a reason why no Northern Region boys basketball team has won a state title since 1981. The rule could also curb the offseason influence of Amateur Athletic Union sources, a longtime concern among high school basketball coaches.
“I would like to see something like that happen,” said T.C. Williams boys basketball coach Ivan Thomas. “We need for those rules to be more consistent across the state and it’s a chance for kids to work in a more structured environment. I look at it as a positive for everyone.”
