For the first time in history, all MHSAA tournament sports – including football, which started practice yesterday and the rest of the fall sports which can begin practice tomorrow – have a minimum number of days of team practice before the first interscholastic contest.

Until this school year, only football required a certain number of days of practice for a team prior to the first game, and that number is reduced from 14 to 12 beginning this fall.  As for the other fall sports:

• For golf and tennis, there must be at least three separate days of practice for the team, and the first interscholastic meet cannot occur before seven calendar days (Aug. 19).
• For boys and girls cross country, soccer, girls LP swimming & diving and girls volleyball, there must be at least seven separate days of practice and at least nine calendar days before the first event (Aug. 21).

The new policies are intended to assure more legitimate team tryouts and better conditioning and team development prior to events than may have occurred under previous rules that even allowed golf and tennis to have interscholastic competition on the first day of the season, without any team practice.

The new policies also allow schools to avoid weekend practices if their constituents prefer.  Never is a weekend practice required to meet the minimums necessary before the first competition date.