THOMASTON -- Georgia high school football coaches and players will see some noticeable changes on the practice field beginning next season after Monday’s Georgia High School Association Executive Committee Meeting.
The GHSA put limits on full contact drills during practices and the new changes will go into effect this fall. The changes are part of recommended safety guidelines made that mirror standards set by the National Federation of State High School Association’s Concussion Summit Task Force.
The new rules will limit full contact to 45 minutes per day and 135 minutes per week in preseason with only 30 minutes per day and 90 per week during the regular season. Also, practices that involve full-contact drills may not take place in three consecutive days.
Gainesville coach Bruce Miller, hearing about the changes for the first time Tuesday, felt the changes aren't too far afield from what most programs already are doing and would help players.
"It won't be a big deal for us because we already try to limit ourselves anyway," Miller said. "I've never thought it was a good idea to beat yourself up so much you can't play on game night. I think this is just people trying to make the game safer for all the players.
"I know of some programs over the years who hit from start-to-finish when they practice. If it helps keep players healthy and on the field I think it's a good idea."
Miller did not think it was part of a concerted effort by people to chip away at football
"I don't think there's any conspiracy or anything to do away with football. I think people are really concerned about safety and I think this is a way to help the kids stay healthy. My goal as a coach is to hopefully teach the kids about the game and life and also have them be able to walk away as healthy as possible when they graduate. Anything we can do to help that is a good thing in my opinion."
However, football wasn’t the only thing addressed during the executive committee meeting. The committee also approved bringing back neutral sites for the quarterfinals of the state basketball playoffs. The quarterfinals had been played at the home of the higher-seeded team for the last three seasons.
Johnson boys coach Jeff Steele, who guided the Knights to the Class AAAA quarterfinals this past season, said he was glad for the change. But he also said they didn't go far enough.
"I like it a lot because it heads us back to the way it used to be with neutral sites for every round," Steele said. "More fans will be able to see more teams and it creates a much better tournament atmosphere for the players. It's a step in the right direction.
"But I think it's time to address the seedings as well. We had too many matchups across the playoffs where the top two or three teams were meeting in the second or third round and it's not fair to the players. In our case, we met Jonesboro in the third round. They were ranked No. 1 and we were No. 3. In the second round Jonesboro played St. Pius, who was ranked fifth. That's way to early in the playoffs to have that many top teams play each other.
"We are required to send stats and scores to Maxpreps or get fined so the GHSA should use the Maxpreps rankings to seed the tournaments. Then you would have a more true reflection of the top teams and not have them play until the semifinals. That would be better and more fair."
To read the full report on the changes to the contact rules in football, visit the GHSA's website.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2015/4/303228/football-contact-rules-hoops-quarterfinals-among-changes-made-by-ghsa