CIF to allow coach-supervised events pre-practice

For the past 16 years the CIF San Diego Section has had a prohibition against teams attending camps, clinics, and tournaments supervised by the school coach or coaching staff members and within two weeks of the start of fall practices. That will no longer be the case.

A unanimous CIF Board of Managers voice vote May 23 eliminated the article in the CIF bylaws which prohibited such activities. The change does not eliminate the two-week "no-contact" period in which a coach cannot have contact with his or her student-athletes.

"It was initially put in the CIF bylaws to address a specific problem," said CIF commissioner Jerry Schniepp. "We no longer have that issue."

In 2002 the CIF implemented a two-week period which prohibits participation or scheduling of organized practices, student-led team practices, team participation in tournaments or clinics, issuance of equipment, school site physical examinations, and organizational meetings. Individual students are allowed to attend a clinic or tournament, and a weight training school class an athlete is not required to attend does not violate the regulation. The prohibition on team activity rather than activity involving an individual student-athlete allows student-athletes with a relative coaching at the school to discuss athletic matters or participate in informal athletic activities.

Prior to 2015 the CIF commissioner annually set a specific two-week "dead period" for the entire section, although if a school principal submitted a written request for an alternative 14-day period the commissioner had the authority to grant that. A change in 2015 allowed schools to select a two-week dead period for each sport, although the no-contact period must still be for two consecutive weeks. Each school submits a form to the CIF office stipulating the starting and ending dates of the no-contact period for each sport. The dead period can start no earlier than the close of school and no later than July 19, a date which would end the no-contact period Aug. 2.

Because the no-contact period is during the summer the prohibition against team camps, clinics, and tournaments applied only to fall sports and not to winter or spring sports. The flexibility of the no-contact period now allows for that dead period to occur earlier in the summer.

The reasons for eliminating the prohibition on camps, clinics, and tournaments within two weeks of the start of fall practices also included the desire to prevent injuries during the season; in the case of cross-country a summer camp could build base miles and the prohibition specifically for the two weeks prior to the start of practice would be counterproductive to that endurance tolerance.

The Board of Managers elimination of the prohibition was preceded by a 28-0 CIF Coordinating Council vote April 25 which recommended removing the ban for the specific weeks.