Follow rodfrisco.com on Facebook and Twitter. Click the buttons below the team categories on the right side of this page.
—
In all honesty, I thought I was done writing about spring football practice, which, if you believe PIAA executive director Brad Cashman, just might be the biggest non-issue in the current PIAA orb.
On the heels of Penn State head coach Joe Paterno and his Pitt counterpart Dave Wannstedt coming out strongly in favor of the addition of a spring football practice period in Pennsylvania, Cashman gave several media interviews in which his response to the possibility of spring football was consistent: Forget it.
(Cashman’s interview with rodfrisco.com is here. Plenty of newspapers chimed in, too. The Centre Daily Times story is here, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is here, the Scranton Times-Tribune editorial is here, the Lebanon Daily News is here, the Associated Press take is here.)
Cashman has several reasons for opposing a spring practice period, but he cites Article XVI of the PIAA By-Laws as the legal rock upon which he stands. Article XVI, Section 1, subsection 2 states: “All sports have a defined-season, and no sport shall operate to the detriment of any other sport.”
Case closed, according to Brad.
Well, maybe. First of all, what does the second half of that sentence (… and no sport shall operate to the detriment of any other sport) mean, exactly? Obviously, most people reasonably interpret that to mean what Cashman has said, that another sport can’t just be added willy-nilly in another season because someone thinks it’s a good idea.
But the simple fact is that other PIAA sports do exist to the detriment of other sports within those defined seasons. Look at the spring: There are five PIAA boys championship sports (baseball, lacrosse, tennis, track and field and volleyball). Could the case be made that any one of those sports operates to the detriment of the others? Depending on the definition of “detriment,” indeed it could; athletes are forced to choose a sport in the defined season.
There are a few athletes (very few) who participate in two sports during a defined season. But most athletes who wish to engage in a sport generally make a choice, and that’s that.
And Article XVI has yet another subsection, unquoted by Cashman in his interviews. It is subsection 3, right below the now-famous “detriment” section.
It reads: “All students should have the opportunity to participate in as many interscholastic athletic experiences as is reasonably possible.”
Well now.
That sentence is obviously not a mandate, and no doubt it is written into the By-Laws to promote multi-sport participation. But the key words in that sentence are “opportunity” and “experiences.” Is the PIAA working counter to that statement by not providing football, the only PIAA sport that has out-of-season regulations (also a part of Article XVI) written specifically for that sport, another opportunity or experience?
And that is the rub. Football, alone among PIAA sports, is singled out for off-season restriction. Given that, could football make the case for a spring practice period based on that exception?
There are two very strong reasons to oppose spring football, and those reasons are very well-worn: Health and sharing the football athletes. Often left unsaid is the dark intention of the tyrannical football coach who would demand that football players attend spring practice to the exclusion of other sports and activities.
The latter, I believe, is a dying breed. And where such creatures still exist, the state football coaches association stands ready to swat them down. The coaches have already said that a two-week practice period would not start until late May after the regular season of the spring sports have concluded, and they also stress that such a practice period would be voluntary.
I’m not naive; I know that some coaches would apply some backroom pressure. Shame on them. But does anyone think football is the only sport in which that happens? Spare me the notion that basketball coaches are more pure of heart than their football brethren.
And I get the funny feeling that people think spring football practice would be identical to the rough two-a-days of fall, only on greener grass. For one thing, how many football players want to do that in the spring? Not many, I would imagine. But I’m betting there are plenty who would like to engage in the skill aspect of organized practice, especially the linemen who do almost nothing but lift between seasons.
Keep in mind that PIAA could regulate these practices in any manner its chooses, from the duration of a practice to what kind of contact could occur and when.
If PIAA thinks outside of the box, it could actually become a national leader on this issue rather than being the organization of “no.”
The knee-jerk reaction to opposing spring football is understandable, but it’s time get past the reflexive posturing and give the matter some serious, honest thought. People might find it’s not all barking coaches and hideous knee injuries.
