[locke7]

it said they have to have 5 days out and 5 days in so is this the first year they put this in i never remember them going 10 days befor contact.?

[Down and Out]

I was told by one coach that full pads cannot be put on until August 1. I think that is a little too late because some teams play their first scrimmage August 14th or 15th but its what the KHSAA wants.

[cuppett777]

they keep changing stuff they wont be able to even practice before long.

[betsylaynealum]

The date goes by the first day of school. I do think it is stupid, what does that matter they play on the same days. But it goes by the first day of school.

[Stardust]

The date goes by the first day of school. I do think it is stupid, what does that matter they play on the same days. But it goes by the first day of school.

Yes, this is correct

[charlie22]

The rule is that the first day of full pads and contact is the earlier of August 1st or 7 week days before the start of school. Before a kid can beginning practicing in full pads, he must have 5 days of out of full pads practicing to get acclimated to the heat. For almost every kid, that shouldn't be a problem as I'm sure that most teams will begin out of full pad practices as soon as the dead period ends on July 10th.

I believe that is the same rule that was in place last year. Sam Harp (Danville's coach) has proposed some change to the start date of pads in another Don Quixote like quest to "level the playing field", but that rule change has not yet been voted on or approved. I believe it will be presented to the delegates at their annual meeting this fall.

Sam was complaining that schools that start late have an advantage over schools that start early. His rationale was that a school that starts say, August 24th, can start full pad practices on August 1 and have multiple practices per day (keeping in mind the rule that prevents back to back days of multiple contact practices) for three weeks or so until school starts, whereas a school that starts on say August 4th, only gets 7 days of full contact practice. Once school starts of course, the school day prevents multiple practices. While I understand Sam's point and have a lot of respect for him as a coach and person, I don't think that the KHSAA should get involved in this issue. It's a local school district's choice when to start the school year. If we applied Sam's rationale to other local school district's decisions, if a school district voted to only allow 1 paid assistant coach, should the KHSAA enact a rule banning all football teams from having more than 1 paid assistant? I don't think so. If the local school district wants to make a decision that adversely affects that district's football team, I see no reason to require all other districts' football teams to be bound by that decision. If Sam has concerns that, because of the early start date of the Danville school system, he might not have his team as prepared for the first game as an opponent that has a school year that starts much later, he should factor that into who he schedules early in the year. I see no good reason to place any further limitations on the number of practices a team can have. Ky football is on the rise and I don't want to see rules be put in place that may impede that continued progress; certainly not rules that are an attempt to find that fictitional, never, never land of a "level playing field".

[cougarpride08]

I like that!

[Big Five-0-]

Agree! Well said.

[Real Badman]

Well if the first date of school rule is still ineffect then Belfry, East Ridge, Pike Central, Phelps, and Shelby Valley will start contact practice July 31st.

[Real Badman]

http://www.khsaa.org/football/contactpractice.pdf