Football: Proposal Could Put Limits On Full-Contact Practices

Many high school football coaches throughout the state already have their practice schedules planned and ready to put into action before their teams begin preseason workouts next week.

Those plans, however, might have to be changed if the latest move toward player safety comes into play. A proposal has been issued that will put limits on practices involving full pads and full contact, and it will be one of five voted on by the state's schools during the Arkansas Activities Association's annual meeting with the governing body Aug. 6 in Little Rock.

"In the four years I've been in Arkansas, football has been the sport that has been hammered by rules and regulations," Rogers High coach Shawn Flannigan said. "I think we are going to lose opportunities for our kids to get better."

The proposal, which will be effective immediately if passed by a majority vote, states that teams will not be allowed to hold full-contact practices on consecutive days after their first day they can start practicing pads, which will be Aug. 9 this year. Teams will also be limited to three days of full pads and full contact per week, which includes varsity games played on Friday night and junior varsity games on Monday night.

It's a result of a meeting that took place during the spring with a number of college and high school athletic organizations and various physicians groups, according to AAA deputy executive director Joey Walters. It was recommended during that meeting that high school and college football teams should have no consecutive days of full-contact practices in full pads once preseason workouts begin.

"We then met with members of the Arkansas Football Coaches Association when it came to writing the proposal," Walters said. "Then the board of directors supported it.

"Last year, Texas and Alabama used a rule where teams were limited to a number of minutes of full contact per week. It simply takes the body time to recover."

Coaches throughout the state show their full support when it comes to the improvement of player safety, whether it deals with the prevention of heat-related situations or an injury. Gravette coach Bill Harrelson said there isn't a worse feeling he gets than, as a coach, to see any of his players injured during a practice session, and he feels personally responsible when it happens.

Most of them, though, feel this proposal might be a little excessive. They believe this new ruling could hinder not only their efforts toward their team's preseason preparations, but also affect the quality of the game itself as the season progresses.

"Football is an anomaly as far as sports go," said Clarksville first-year coach Eli Cranor. "To actually simulate what is going to take place during a game, there needs to be 22 guys on the field with shoulder pads and helmets, and this is something that is important to us coaches.

"We put a lot of our time into our players, and now they are wanting to cut out some more of that time we have out there. What it's going to do is change the game and not let football be played the way it was meant to be played. I'm also afraid we will lose some people because of it."

Flannigan and Pea Ridge coach Tony Travis said that they have cut the number of full-contact practices in full pads with their teams, strictly because of safety issues, and they believe other coaches are doing the same. Many have turned toward what is considered "thud pace" -- where players are in helmets, shoulder pads and shorts, and nobody is taken to the ground.

The reason is simple: they want to have as many players as possible available to play on Friday nights.

"It's a fine line that you walk in practice," Travis said. "You want your guys to be physical and aggressive, but you don't want to get anybody hurt on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays."

Coaches also expressed their concerns on what effect this ruling may have on what they consider to be marginal players. These are the players that may not start on Friday night, but they play on special teams or fill in at certain areas in case a starter needs a breather or is injured.

These are also the players that will start during junior varsity games on Monday night, particularly on teams in smaller classifications that may have depth issues. If those junior varsity games are counted as one of the full-contact days, then those players would have only one other full-contact practice before a Friday night game.

"This will affect smaller schools a lot more," Farmington coach Mike Adams said. "In our situation, it's going to eliminate half of our team for the Wednesday practice. That's going to be tough on us because we practice in pads on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

"In bigger schools, it's not going to affect them too much. But for us, we have 60 kids and a lot of them play on Monday nights. It's those younger kids -- the sophomores and juniors on our JV teams -- that need the practice the most. They're the ones that need to be doing the fundamentals: blocking and tackling two or three days a week. This will lessen the product we put out on the field."

D.J. Vincent, the defensive coordinator at Class 6A Little Rock Parkview, said he's already heard talk of how some teams may have to rethink their ideas concerning Monday junior varsity games or even eliminating them altogether. He's also part of a Patriots coaching staff who has already issued out their preseason practice plans to players in order for them to be prepared when practices begin next week.

Some of those plans, though, will need to be reworked if the proposal passes.

"I really don't like some of the language that pertains to that proposal," Vincent said. "Even in practices when you're going at thud tempo, you're going to have players end up on the ground. One or two are going to take a fall now and then, and if so, are they going to have somebody watching us?

"We're going to follow the protocol, but we're coaches and professionals. We're all about kids' safety, but at the same time, I think this is going to handcuff us."

Sports on 07/27/2014