Out of Season Contact Information

Advisory Regarding Summer Activity
The MIAA position on summer activities is simple. Students may do whatever they and their parents choose during the course of the summer, but high school coaches are not to have direct influence over those decisions. This position ensures fairness to both your student athletes (summer should be a time where young people can do as they choose) and to those against whom your student athletes will be competing during the high school season.

Member school principals and athletic directors must make certain that their coaches do nothing to give the appearance that there is an expectation for specific out-of-season activity of their student athletes. Coaches should not be communicating with their student athletes with regard to specific program participation. Coaches should not “assign” individuals to lead summer activities as the high school coach’s “alter ego”. Coaches should not be monitoring attendance or participation of their student athletes in summer programs. Also to be avoided are those summer camps that offer enticements to coaches or teams to participate in those camps.

An additional important consideration for you is in the area of liability. If students or their parents believe that there is an expectation or support for specific summer participation, the school district could be considered liable for any incident associated with such activity.
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Advisory Regarding Out of Season League
A call reported a summer baseball league made up of teams using high school names and including primarily or solely "candidates" from those high schools. Many of the scheduled league games will be played on the high school baseball field of one of the two competing teams. Candidates were "encouraged" by their high school coach to play on a team, and high school coaches helped (along with the summer team coach) to organize the summer team. Schools with a team in this league will violate Association standards governing coach or school involvement in the out-of-season activities of their student athletes. Please talk with all of your coaches about their need to avoid any possible violation of season limit rules.
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Alert regarding out-of-season "camps"
The office recently received a report from a member school principal that his high school soccer coach had arranged for "lightning soccer" to conduct a week-long camp at the high school beginning on August 20 for members of that high school team. When the principal canceled the program, the coach claimed that this was common practice among other Association member schools. Such a camp would provide the high school team with an unfair out-of-season advantage. Please be certain that such "camps" have not been planned for any teams within your athletic program.
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Excerpt from the Coaches Newsletter - Winter 2001 Issue
The spirit of MIAA out-of-season rules is probably more important than the letter. These standards exist to ensure fairness. It is unfair to student athletes in competing schools to have the opposition prepare, outside of the rules, prior to the start of the defined high school season. It also is unfair to influence or require your own student athletes to participate in an out-of-season preparation program, because that deprives them and their parents from making choices about the use of their out-of-season time.
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Out of Season Activity (From the "Select Rules Explained" Document)
The spirit of MIAA out-of-season rules 40 and 41 is probably more important than the letter. These standards exist to ensure fairness. It is unfair to student athletes in competing schools to have the opposition prepare, outside of the rules, prior to the start of each MIAA defined high school season. It also is unfair to influence or require student athletes to participate in an out-of-season preparation program, because that deprives them and their parents from making choices about the use of their off season time. Student athletes are free to do whatever they chose to do during their out-of-season period, but their activity must not be influenced or supported by a coach or the school.    School uniforms and school names are not to be associated with out-of season activity.
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