CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Board of Education on Wednesday unanimously gave the final approval to a proposal that will give high school coaches in the state more flexibility with out of season coaching.
It was the third straight year the board of education was presented with an out-of-season coaching proposal – and the first time it had enough momentum and support to pass.
“The key was that the principals all agreed on it this time,” said board member and representative to the SSAC Dr. Jim Wilson. “As long as they were happy with it and the administration of the SSAC was happy, I was able to go to the board and say that everyone wanted to see it passed.”
Under the new rules, teams will still be limited to a three-week practice window (consecutively) in the summer, but each county will set the specific dates. The previous window had preset dates locked-in statewide by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission.
Schools now will be able to schedule that consecutive three-week window anytime from the end of baseball season to the beginning of the fall practice season. The week of July 4 would be the one dead week.
Coaches also will be given six ‘flex’ days to have sport-specific work with athletes out-of-season and outside of the three-week summer practice window.
“You can pretty much do everything but have contact in football,” Wilson said of the flex days. “It also allows coaches to be with their kids if a college coach would happen to come in and want to workout a youngster.”
A coach or principal designee of each sport may be present as an observer, lecture participant, staff member, or in any capacity at any summer camp.
“The rules changes have to sit in the secretary of state’s office for 60 days,” SSAC executive director Bernie Dolan said prior to the meeting. “If it goes like it has in the past, I would expect the new rules to be active somewhere around September 15.”
The proposal was overwhelmingly approved 104-8 back in April by the SSAC board of control, sending it on to the state board for the final vote.
More drastic proposals have been dismissed by the state board of education in both of the last two years, including an option last year which would have opened up access year-round. That measure, however, barely passed the SSAC’s board of control by one vote, 54-53, and never had much momentum going into the state board’s ultimate decision.
“We want to work our way into what the pitfalls may be to extending (out of season coaching),” Dolan said. “One of the hesitations to opening it up year-round is that we don’t want our schools fighting among themselves, within the school, between different sports — someone trying to keep kids from playing other sports.”
Wilson, meanwhile, expects the ‘flex days’ compromise to put an end to further expansion proposals for out-of-season coaching – at least for now.
“I think this is where it will sit,” Wilson said. “For the foreseeable future, I don’t see the issue coming back again.”