As football programs at all levels are coming to understand the long-term effects of concussions and repeated contact to the head, it's no surprise that the newest set of National Federation of State High School Associations football rules gives that issue the highest priority.
Rather than have numerous points of emphasis, as is usually the case with the annual rule books (football and otherwise), there's only one in the 2011 edition: Concussions, contact both to and with the helmet, and helmet technology and proper helmet fitting.
"It's not a rule change," said Bob Colgate, an assistant director at the NFHS who's in charge of the football and wrestling rule books. "We had the concussion rule in place before the NFL and NCAA did."
But the NFHS can't go too far, because now state legislatures are stepping into the arena. There are more than 20 states with laws about concussions, treating concussions and when to allow players to get back on the field, he said, with 20 more working on proposals.
Football is a physical game, soeliminating concussions is pretty muchimpossible.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
"They're all going to be a little bit different, so we don't get into return-to-play policy."
Still, the NFHS rules emphasize that helmet-to-helmet contact is unacceptable and that coaches should not teach using the head in blocking or tackling. The rulemakers also urge school administrators to do everything possible to ensure that coaches and players are fully aware of the dangers of concussions and that football teams have access to proper equipment. About 60 percent of football concussions are a result of contact by a helmet.
"At the end of the day, it's a physical sport," said Tony Sanchez, the coach at
Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas). He does his best to minimize the risks of the game, but as he points out, "There's no such thing as a concussion-proof helmet."
One actual rule change also addressed player safety, but it probably won't have a great deal of impact.
The definition of a chop block was clarified and expanded to include combination high-low blocks (a block above the waist by one player and below the waist by another) that occur with a time gap between them. The previous rule required the officials to determine if the blocks happened at the same, and only if they happened at the same time would a flag be thrown. Now, if a defensive player is already engaged with an offensive player in an above-the-waist block, and another offensive player later arrives with a below-the waist block, it's a 15-yard penalty.
Also, a low-low combination block is no longer considered a chop block.
"People use the combination blocks on the backside of a run or in pass protection," said Sanchez, but he doesn't see the change as having more than an incidental impact at the high school level. "Not being able to chop the second-level player is a bigger deal."
Two other penalty enforcement rules echo the theme of player safety. Now, both the horse-collar tackle penalty yardage and roughing the passer penalty yardage will be added to the result of the play, rather than being marched off from the line of scrimmage. So now a roughing the passer penalty on a 20-yard completion will actually wind up with the offense moving 35 yards down the field.
A slight rule change also might lead some to think that NFHS stands for "No Fun in High School" as no longer are players allowed to use eye shade in any kind of decorative shape. It has to be a straight line of eye black, with no words, numbers or logos involved, as well as no dramatic war-paint effects.
"The purpose of eye shade is to reduce glare," said Colgate. "Players were using it to bring attention to themselves, and that's a sportsmanship issue."
More news and rules of the day:
* IT'S NOT A MIRAGE: There are a lot more kids playing lacrosse. In 2010, more than 250,000 high school students played lacrosse, up 10 percent from 2009, and the growth continued this year. The increase at the prep level is fueled in part by the steady growth in youth leagues, which also registered a 10 percent growth rate.
The long-term picture is just as bright, as the number of boys' varsity programs has increased 55 percent over the last five years and the number of girls' varsity programs has increased 48.4 percent.
That means it’s time for a lot of us to actually learn the rules.
* VOTED DOWN: California may be loaded with up-to-the-minute high-tech companies but the governing structure for its high schools is stuck in the mud. The California Interscholastic Federation is just that, a federation, so it has very limited power over its 10 member sections – which range in size from six to more than 400 schools.
In basketball, for example, all of the 10 sections have different rules about when practice can start and how many games team can play. So the Southern Section, the largest and home to national powers Brea-Olinda, Mater Dei and Long Beach Poly, allows teams to start practice in mid-August. Northern California sections generally don’t let teams on the court until early November, which may account for some of the SoCal dominance when it comes to state titles.
This spring, though, there was a push to have all teams in the state start practice at the same time, and be limited to the same number of games – but it was voted down. So much for innovation in the Golden State.
* SHOT CLOCK UPDATE: Everybody seems to want a shot clock in high school basketball – except for some coaches (usually on the boys’ side, for whatever reason) and administrators who would have to find money in the budget to install them.
As it is, six states take advantage of the NFHS option to use a 30- or 35-second shot clock for both boys and girls, and Maryland uses it for public school girls’ games only. The Washington Catholic Athletic League added the shot clock this past season in D.C., and there is a steady push for more states to add the time limit, which is used around the world and at all other levels of American basketball.
Cost is an issue, certainly, and not only for the clocks themselves (the cheapest of which cost around $450) but also for the extra personnel required to run them. But most fans aren’t really that thrilled with teams that hold the ball for long stretches, or start running a delay game with four minutes left, so maybe that expense would be offset by higher ticket sales.
High School Rules is a new MaxPreps monthly feature that highlights topical prep governing issues and rule debates. Look for High School Rules the first Tuesday of every month. E-mail Clay Kallam at Clayk@fullcourt.com.
