By Hogan Webb
Staff Writer
At its meeting on May 2, 2014 the State CIF Federated Council approved Bylaw 506, a practice allowance rule for all sports, that went in effect on July 1, 2014. These new rules and regulations will be completely irrelevant to local sports teams and will have no impact on their season or practice times, but are fair overall.
The first new rule is that teams are allowed to practice no more than 18 hours a week, and the daily practices may not exceed 4 hours. Doubleday practices shall not be held on consecutive days, and you must allow at least 3 hours of rest between the two practices. Any competition day would count as 3 hours of practice toward the allowable weekly and daily hours no matter the length of the contest.
The rule about practice hours granted per week is completely inconsequential. According to the Costa sports websites, no sports teams at Costa have been practicing more than four hours a day in the past, so that new regulation is irrelevant. According to varsity water polo coach Jon Reichardt he does not think these new rules should be a problem because 18 hours a week of practice is a lot, and anyone who goes over that is crazy in his opinion. This rule is very fair because practicing over 18 hours would be excessive.
The regulation stating that teams can not practice twice a day consecutively will have the greatest impact on Costa, however it will still only mean minor changes. According to the freshman football coach Chuck Currier the new guidelines for practice times weekly should have no impact on our team. Football practices usually run between 2 and 2.5 hours 3 days per week, with a game on Thursday, and a short practice on Friday. We are well under the guideline, even after adding in the 3 hours for a game. During the first two weeks of practice we typically do two practices a day so it constrained football a small amount, but insignificant.
The third law that as stated will never affect Mira Costa sports. The law writes that there must be at least a 3 hour period in between the double day practices. Mira Costa sports that practice twice a day train once before school and then also after school. School is at least 5 hours long depending on the students schedule, so there would never be a conflict with this law.
The new rules released by the CIF Federation regarding practice schedules has not seemed to scare Costa and they have little to zero affect on the sports programs. Mira Costa will not have to change much in their schedules to accomodate for these regulations. The CIF Federation had alloted a huge amount of time for practice, which Costas teams have never came close to surpassing. Costa will continue it’s tradition of success regardless of these rules.
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