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Prep athletes spend summer vacations working up a sweat

Schedule includes 10 days of organized or instructional contact for coaches with respective high school teams

Beavercreek soccer coach Steve Popp watches his players run conditioning drills Tuesday night, July 21, at the Ankeney Soccer Complex. Coaches are allowed 10 days in the summertime to participate in organized or instructional contact with athletes.

Staff photo by Jan Underwood Beavercreek soccer coach Steve Popp watches his players run conditioning drills Tuesday night, July 21, at the Ankeney Soccer Complex. Coaches are allowed 10 days in the summertime to participate in organized or instructional contact with athletes.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Greg Billing, Staff Writer 1:37 AM Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Less than a month remains before summer runs out on area kids. High school student-athletes are already making the transition.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association allows 10 days from June 1 through July 31 — considered the summer period — for coaches to hold organized or instructional contact with athletes. With football and golf starting practice Aug. 3, it’s time to crank it up.

Coaches differ on how they use their allotted days. But most agree July is the best time to use them.

“We seem to space them out enough that we get the kids in shape and work on a few things prior to the season starting,” Beavercreek High School girls soccer coach Steve Popp said. “I think they give us an opportunity to get the kids in shape. It gives the coaches an opportunity to take a look at the players.

“Going to the preseason tournaments lets you see how they do in game situations.”

Perfect 10?

In addition to those 10 days, high school coaches can supervise open gyms and conduct weight-training or conditioning programs, as long as they follow OHSAA guidelines. What they can’t do is provide instruction or coaching to their teams or individual players at those events.

Is 10 days enough? Team sports such as soccer and football could benefit from additional days to gel, compared to individual sports such as tennis and cross country. June also is loaded with AAU tournaments, recreational leagues, sports camps, family vacations and down time that can make finding available days difficult.

“I think most coaches are reasonable,” Lebanon volleyball coach Tim Mersch said. “Kids need a summer; they need family time. I think a crazy coach would demand they be there or you don’t make the team. You can’t do that.”

The 10-day regulation started in 1991-92. Prior to that, coaches had 15 days to use from Sept. 1 through Aug. 31 — a full calendar year — with a few stipulations.

Different approach

Unlike Ohio, the Indiana High School Athletic Association allows unlimited coaching and conditioning contact (sans pads for football) through the summer, except for a one-week moratorium that usually includes the Fourth of July holiday.

“Other than that, the school coaches are allowed to work with their athletes through the summer,” said Jason Wiley of the IHSAA. “A lot of folks are concerned the kids aren’t allowed to be kids like we grew up. The coaches want to work with their kids a little more, so we’ve allowed that.”

Michigan also uses a one-week “summer dead period” determined by each school for zero coaching contact. Open gyms are banned six-to-14 days prior to the start of each season after some evolved into out-of-season practices.

Club conflicts

Attendance at coaching days is not mandatory. Mersch, Lebanon’s volleyball coach, even tells his club players to stay away from the practices. Or at the most, watch but don’t participate.

“A lot of these kids are still playing (club and select) in June or July with nationals. They don’t need the work as much as the kids who don’t play or can’t afford to play,” Mersch said. “Those are the kids who probably haven’t touched the ball since last season. Those are the ones getting hurt with the 10-day rule. A lot of kids, with the economy now, they can’t afford to play.”

With AAU basketball, Olympic Development Programs in soccer, American Legion baseball and other summer sporting options, coaches aren’t as concerned about getting an early start in June. That also helps with the situation of sharing multisport athletes.

“Kids are so good now playing club, the next step is getting stronger, getting conditioned,” said Mersch, who favors 15 days of summer coaching. “Burnout happens big-time. I’ve got one of my best players this year that did not play club. I told her that’s fine because you can see burnout.”

Practice makes perfect

Coaches such as Jim Weckesser, Centerville’s boys cross country coach, does his best to use all 10 days. His wife, Alter girls soccer coach Corrie Weckesser, wouldn’t mind borrowing a few of them.

“For us, we can run every day, and no one says anything about that,” Jim Weckesser said of the conditioning. “We just can’t instruct them. We benefit from that because we don’t have to wear pads.”

Weckesser said he also lets seniors and team captains run student-led sessions in the summer. He’ll take over in late July with hill-running exercises and timed activities.

“I’d probably be against (more days) because some coaches would probably abuse it,” Weckesser said. “They would force kids to be there all summer, and kids wouldn’t have that down time or family time. I’m for the family time.”

Game management

There are ways, though, to get around the system.

Coaches can e-mail players or parents a practice schedule, and running it wouldn’t count as one of 10 days. Fellow coaches could conceivably trade teams for a day or two, and it wouldn’t count since they are not instructing their own kids.

Some coaches also mistakenly think they have 240 total hours to use.

And just like summer, time to use them is starting to run out.

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