The following regulations were adopted by the State Executive Committee at its meeting on March 19, 2012 and go into effect for the 2012-13 school year:
Football practice may begin five consecutive weekdays prior to August 1st (July 25th in 2012).
1. In the first five days of practice for any student, the practice shall not last longer than 2 hours, and the student shall not wear more than shorts, helmet, mouthpiece, and shoes. (NOTE: The time for a session shall be measured from the time the players report to the field until they leave the field.)
2. Beginning August 1st, any student may practice in full pads and may practice two times in single calendar day under the following stipulations:
a. A student must have participated in five conditioning practices wearing shorts and helmet before being allowed to practice in full pads
b. If multiple workouts are held in a single day:
i. No single session may last longer than 3 hours
ii. The total amount of time in the two practices shall not exceed 5 hours.
iii. There must be at least a 3-hour time of rest between sessions
iv. There may not be consecutive days of two-a-day practices. All double-session days must be followed by a single-session day or a day off.
c. These procedures are derived from recommendations created by the Inter-Association Task Force for Preseason Secondary School Athletics Participants in the research paper “Preseason Heat-Acclimatization Guidelines for Secondary School Athletics.”
