The Georgia High School Association passed new measures to limit full contact football practice on Monday.

But for some area coaches, the new limitations won't change much about how they run their practices.

"I went back and I keep a copy of all my practice schedules and I looked at how we organized our practices this year and I think the adjustment will be a lot less," Cedar Shoals coach Scott Wilkins said. "...I don't see that having the full impact in terms of how we prepare for a game."

The new rules, passed unanimously during the GHSA's Executive Committee meeting on Monday, limit full contact during practice and require coaches to keep written practice plans for a 12-month period. In preseason practice, contact is limited to 45 minutes per day and 135 minutes per week. Full contact is not permitted more than two consecutive days per week and in only one session per day during two-a-days.

During the regular and postseason, full contact is limited to 30 minutes per day and 90 minutes per week. Full contact is allowed no more than three times a week and is not allowed on more than two consecutive days.

Six other states have similar rules in place, GHSA media director Steve Figueroa told the Atlanta Journal Constitution earlier this week. Alabama, Arizona, Maryland and Texas adopted similar limits in 2013, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

"It's such a safety issue," GHSA football coordinator Tommy Whittle said. "It should help parents feel more confident about letting their sons play football."

Minor tweaks and further explanation on the rule could still come, Whittle said. Read more...

Related

Thomaston Times

AJC.com

In sports lingo, the clock is ticking toward the final buzzer on a Florida Legislature drive to revamp oversight of state high-school athletics.

If approved by the Florida Senate in this last week of the Legislature's 2015 session, the law apparently would abolish the Florida High School Athletics Association, the nonprofit agency that has regulated prep sports for more than half a century.

"Hundreds of thousands of kids could be affected," said Marathon High School Athletic Director Teresa Konrath, a member of the FHSAA board of directors. "It could end the concept of fair play.... Miami and other parts of the state would be in total chaos."

Konrath agrees with FHSAA positions that the bill may create a flood of transfers by students more concerned about their athletic careers than education.

"It basically opens the doors to transferring without regulation," Konrath said Friday. "Athletes could play football at one school and basketball at another.... Some schools will become powerhouses. Others will have to shut down programs that never have a chance."

The Florida House passed its version of the bill, HB 7137, on a 89-26 vote Wednesday. State Rep. Holly Raschein (R-Monroe County) voted for it.

"I did not hear from anybody [in Monroe County] in opposition to this bill," Raschein said Friday. "I would have been happy to hear from them. I've got an open-door policy and would have appreciated any information." Read more...

Lebanon - Across the Upper Valley, traditional team sports models within public high school physical education curriculums are being replaced by fitness and personal-growth initiatives.

At Lebanon High, longtime PE teacher Tim Kehoe teaches personal fitness courses that center on weight room progress, while Hanover High's Todd Bebeau instructs a freshman class called Outdoor Adventures that focuses on personal goals and risk-taking. At Hartford High, Heather Scudder incorporates health education into PE, with students quizzed four times per term, while Newport's Doug Beaupre dedicates much of his class time to activities he feels they're most likely to enjoy after high school, such as disc golf and hiking.

It's all part of a nationwide trend, teachers say, as public schools begin to follow prompts by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health organizations. The CDCP's "VERB - It's what you do" campaign five years ago began encouraging educators to focus on guidelines such as those suggested by the American Heart Association and other groups beckoning adolescents to engage in 60 minutes of moderate-to- vigorous exercise every day.

Kehoe's personal fitness classes do just that with circuit workouts that incorporate weight lifting, suspension training and cardiovascular exercises. Students develop individual workouts, fitness goals and food logs, creating a portfolio submitted at the end of the year.

Kehoe says the format is more satisfying than when he first began at Lebanon in the early 1990s, a curriculum based largely on ball sports like kickball and flag football with little emphasis on personal achievements other than who scores the most touchdowns or boots the farthest home runs.

"With this personal fitness model, I believe it's the most important class I can teach," said Kehoe, who helped rewrite the school's PE curriculum several years ago. "We're teaching them skills where they can do this stuff themselves a long time after they graduate. When they're 40 years old, they can go somewhere like (the Carter Community Building Association's Witherell Center) and do this stuff on their own, without having to pay someone $80 an hour."

One main personal goal in Kehoe's classes is increasing repetitions within a set time frame. For most students, advancements are evident within a matter of weeks, helping raise their self- confidence as well as their physique.

"A lot of kids enjoy this type of self growth, progress you can measure," Kehoe said. "Some of them are 100 percent stronger or even 200 percent stronger by the end of the class." Read more...