Coaches still want to protect players from overuse

GREENFORD -- The Ohio High School Athletic Association opened up the possibility for some spring football practices when it passed new regulations governing when coaches can have access to students in the closing weeks of the academic school year.

The "summer" coaching period for football and most other sports now starts on May 15. Coaches have 13 days they can utilize with teams as long as there are no contact practices with full pads. Restrictions have also been lifted on how many 7-on-7 competitions schools can compete in.

For some of the most successful programs in Mahoning County, the new regulations don't mean much of anything right now.

"We haven't changed a whole lot because I think our kids -- especially our older kids -- are comfortable with the off-season sets up," South Range and Ohio All-Stars head coach David Rach said. "Obviously you want to practice as much as you can, but it's still important for the kids to have some semblance of a summer and have a chance to vacation with their families and have a mental reset. They've put in a lot of work leading up to the offseason, so I think it's important they have a chance with at least a week or two to rest and recover."

Rach thinks the program has plenty of time already to get in everything it needs to and kids need to be fresh with the extended playoff run possibility.

"I've talked to other coaches and I don't think teams did things a whole lot different," Rach said. "Maybe that looks different going forward with the increase in 7 on 7s but we never used up our camp days with 7 on 7s before. It's not a huge part of our identity. I do appreciate the freedom to be allowed to work on something if you need to though."

At West Branch things are running as usual and head coach Tim Cooper is fine with that.

"We didn't do anything that different because we share a lot of guys with other sports," Cooper said. "At the end of the day, we still want our kids to be kids. We don't ever do anything on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. They have summer baseball or do summer basketball, we let them go do that. We want to keep them fresh because come August it's time to ramp things up. Hopefully we are playing deep into November and possibly December. We don't want to wear those guys out."

Cooper said that with smaller schools sharing athletes with other sports, it's going to be difficult to get quality reps out of 7 on 7s since you won't have everyone you need there.

On the Div. VII side of things, Leetonia coach Matt Altomare agrees.

"Nothing much has changed," Altomare said. "Being a small school, we've got kids that do a bit of everything with track and baseball."

Altomare said the new regulations offer more peace of mind rather than vastly expanded opportunities to get better.

"Now I know I'm not breaking the rules if I decide to get our helmets out," Altomare said.

According to Altomare, Leetonia got together for some team activities after school a few times and on Sundays at noon.

"We went from 12 to 1 on Sundays, but that was player led," Altomare said. "It wasn't mandatory, but one of the advantages of being at the school you coach at is you know when they have time off track or baseball."

Altomare said he agrees that kids should have the summer to be kids, but he also wants to start to get prepared.

"You want to leave them be and relax a little bit, but you want them thinking about football a little bit," Altomare said.

FLAG FOOTBALL

There have been some quiet mumblings about the possibility of girls flag football gaining enough traction in the state to become an officially sanctioned high school sport. Right now, that groundswell is located in the state's two NFL cities. The Cleveland Browns' girls flag football program was expected to have about 60 schools participating this spring in its third year of existence. The Cincinnati Bengals' program started off with six teams participating in its first year.

In July, Canton will host a large flag football tournament featuring a girls division, but as of right now only nine states officially recognize flag football as an official high school sport.

In the Youngstown metro area, the talk is at a minimum right now.

Cooper said West Branch does some powder puff games in the spring but he hasn't heard about it discussed in any other way.

Rach said he think it would be exciting because there are a lot of girls who are now passionate about the game. The main issue he believes would be finding a place on the calendar for it.

Altomare said that in regional coaching meetings he's been at it has come up for discussion, but he has not seen the interest by girls in this geographic region yet.

"It's definitely intriguing," Altomare said.