IHSAA Summer Rules

Many high school coaches are beginning to question the value of 12-month per year training for their sport.  More and more kids are opting to just play one high school sport or, in some cases, none at all.  Before this rule, it was not unusual for 25 to 30 boys to come out for freshmen basketball.  That number has now dwindled to 10-12 on an average year.  Several reasons have been sighted for this lack of participation.  Very few student athletes choose to play football and basketball any more.  For schools with less than a thousand enrollment, this cuts the number of kids for each sport.  It has not been as profound in girls sports because they do not play football.  Freshmen will tell you the reason they did not come out for a sport was because they did not want to get up at 5 a.m. to lift weights or in some cases even practice.  The big problem occurs during the summer when all sports want their kids to train.  If you are out for more than one sport, you have the conflict of which one do you attend on any given day.  If the coaches are inflexible, you run the danger of being cut from the program if you are not a star.  This means you make a decision on what sport you will continue in even though you are not sure which you are the best at doing.  Plus, with the new school calendars summer vacations are shorter than in the past.  This means that in June you will be actively participating in many sports camps.  In the case of basketball, they play 25-30 games of basketball during these camps.  Kids simply have no time off.