GEORGIA HIGH SCHOOL ASSOCIATION - DeKalb County Schools

BY-LAW 2.60 - INTERSCHOLASTIC CONTESTS AND PRACTICES
GEORGIA HIGH SCHOOL ASSOCIATION 45
• SITUATION: When do out-of-season practice restrictions begin
INTERPRETATION: The beginning of the GHSA school year is the earliest date of the first practice for any GHSA
sport, or the first day of classes – whichever comes first. On that date, all restrictions about camps, clinics, and
participation of coaches go into effect.
• SITUATION: A student participates in a Fall baseball league offered in the community (while school is in
session), and the high school coaches assists with the practices of this team.
INTERPRETATION: This is a violation of GHSA rules for coaching out-of-season.
• SITUATION: May a school open its gym during the school year for students to participate in basketball, volleyball,
or wrestling outside the sport seasons for these activities, and may students on those school teams participate
INTERPRETATION: The gym may be open for all students in the school, and students involved in the sports
mentioned may participate, but no coach in that sport may be present during these times.
• SITUATION: May a faculty member officiate basketball pick up games before or after school outside of the
published basketball season
INTERPRETATION: Yes, as long as the faculty member is not a basketball coach at that school.
• SITUATION: May a coach in any extracurricular activity conduct voluntary, individual instruction with a student
outside a team or competitive setting and outside the designated season for that activity
INTERPRETATION: Yes, even if the instruction is in the activity that the coach coaches during the designated
activity season as long as the instruction is voluntary and is outside a team or competitive setting. At any given
point in time, only one coach in a particular sport may be working with one or two athletes in skill-building drills.
• SITUATION: A cheerleading coach desires to bring in a representative of a national cheer organization to hold
a clinic for the cheerleaders: (a) during the season, or (b) just after Spring try-outs. Is this legal
INTERPRETATION: This is a violation in either case. In (a), the violation is for illegal coaching; in (b), the violation
is for out-of-season practice. Such a clinic is legal during the Summer.
• SITUATION: May a faculty member organize, but not require, a voluntary out-of-season weight-lifting program
INTERPRETATION: Yes, but students must not be required to attend as a requirement for making the team.
Coaches shall use caution not to suggest that participation in such a program is mandatory, or that their failure
to participate could adversely affect their opportunity to make the school team. Such weight-lifting program must
be open to all students in the school, and physical examinations for each participant must be on file at the school.
The program shall not be sport-specific.
• SITUATION: A softball coach is asked to coach a traveling team that plays its schedule in the Spring and Summer
months. There is one player from the coach's school team on the traveling team. May the coach accept the
duty without violating GHSA rules
INTERPRETATION: If the coach coached the traveling team before school was out for the students, there would
be a violation. There is no violation during the Summer.
• SITUATION: A GHSA wrestling coach wants to take a group of his wrestlers to a “Free Style” tournament during
the month of April, is this legal
RULING: No. Wrestling is wrestling regardless of whether it is “folk style,” “free style,” or Greco-Roman style.
GHSA out-of-season practice rules are in effect for all types of wrestling.
• SITUATION: A certified teacher who coaches at a member school gives instruction and/or coaches in a nonschool
Summer program that continues into Fall semester. What are the restrictions on the coach