Coaches,
Grant Sinclair (White Station High School, Memphis) has proposed a change to the current Dead Periods recently imposed by TSSAA for all fall sports. The proposal has been submitted by White Station High School for the December 2008 Legislative Council meeting. The proposal will be acted on at the Legislative Council meeting taking place at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, December 10, 2008. We are contacting you in an attempt to gain more support from schools across Tennessee. Please read the following, and please note this must be done prior to Monday, December 1, 2008.
The Issue:
Currently, fall sports are required to observe 21 consecutive days of Dead Period following the “end of season.”
For the fall sports, this dead period varies between sports and schools. Whereas some sport’s/school’s “end of season” may be the end of the regular season, for others it can be after the city championship, after districts/regions/sections, or after the state championship. In other words, no uniformity.
Our proposal (attached at the bottom of the file) is that there be one Uniform Dead Period (similar to the summer Dead Period) for all fall sports that begins the day after the Blue Cross Bowl (the final TSSAA fall event of the year). Our rationale is:
1) This would create a dead period that would be uniform across all fall sports and all schools.
2) The dead period would occur during fall exams and the holiday season, a period when athletes should not be focused on athletics anyway. Additionally, because most coaches do not conduct conditioning during this period, the current calendar in fact results in six to seven weeks of down time, not just the three weeks imposed by TSSAA.
3) For fall sports, teams would be able to conduct uniform turn in, end of season wrap-up meetings, and/or end of season banquets, all of which are “illegal” for the first 21 days after the “end of season” according to the current rules.
4) Athletes wanting to participate in post-season events (i.e., U.S. regional or national championships) would be permitted to continue training with their coach for those events on a voluntary basis after their team has been eliminated from tournament play, just as they are explicitly permitted to do in all spring sports, until the beginning of the Uniform Dead Period.
Hence, the proposal accomplishes two goals: 1) It creates fair uniformity among all fall sports for all schools, and 2) It creates fair uniformity between fall and spring sports with regard to coach participation with athletes who choose to compete beyond the Tennessee state level of competition.
The Solution:
We believe that if enough schools, through their Principals and Athletic Directors (AD), submit the SAME proposed changes for the Dead Period, the Legislative Council and the Board of Control will be willing to make these changes. This is based on a lengthy discussion that Coach Sinclair had with Ronnie Carter, Executive Director, TSSAA. Based on his input, the following means were developed for submitting this proposal:
1) As many schools as we can muster have the attached proposal approved and submitted to the Legislative Council by December 1, 2008 for their meeting on December 10, 2008.
2) If the SAME proposal is submitted by all schools, Mr. Carter believes it will be considered. If different proposals are submitted, it will fail. Hence there should be no changes made to the current proposal by individual schools.
What can you do?
The proposal will be on the agenda for the December meeting. However, the more schools expressing support for the proposal, the better. So please do the following:
1) If you are willing to participate, please email Grant Sinclair (gsinclair@mail.psyc.memphis.edu) stating your intent to do so ASAP.
2) Take the attached proposal to your AD and to the other fall coaches to see if you have majority agreement among all coaches.
3) Assuming your AD is willing to support the proposal (and please let me know ASAP if he/she is not), print the proposal on your school’s stationary (some re-formatting may be necessary and you will need to fill in your school’s name at the top after the “From:”). Have it signed by your Principal and AD and mail it to:
TSSAA Legislative Council
c/o Mr. Carter, Executive Director, TSSAA
P.O. Box 319
3333 Lebanon Rd.
Hermitage, TN 37076
***Again, this must be received by TSSAA by Monday, December 1, 2008***
4) Finally, call your district’s Legislative Council member to express your support for this proposal, and ask for his/hers. To find your representative, go to: http://www.tssaa.org/index.cfm and select “People” (midway down the page on left). Then “Select Category” Legislative Council.
Mr. Carter has been informed that he will be receiving this same proposal from many schools and is happy to accept them and pass them on to the Council to demonstrate the agreement and unity among schools across the state.
Please make an effort to actively participate in this attempt to change the rules which, in their current form, many believe are bad for our athletes, our athletic programs, and athletics in the state of Tennessee.
And please let me know your, and your school’s, opinion/status ASAP at gsinclair@mail.psyc.memphis.edu
I hope to hear from you soon.
Thanks in advance,
Grant Sinclair
Head Coach Cross Country/Distance
White Station High School
gsinclair@mail.psyc.memphis.edu
P.S. You can go to http://www.tssaa.org/Handbook/SportsCalendar.htm
to view the calendars and dead periods for the individual sports. They’re at the bottom of that web page.
To: TSSAA Legislative Council
From:
Proposal to Establish a Uniform Dead Period
For Fall Sports
Proposal:
We propose that all fall sports observe a single Uniform Dead Period similar to the summer Dead Period, during which all school athletic facilities would be closed for fall sports. This Uniform Dead Period would begin each year on the day after the final TSSAA fall sporting event of the year, typically the Blue Cross Bowl, and continue for 21 consecutive days.
Provisions of the Uniform Dead Period:
1) All fall sports would observe the same dead period regulations as defined by the TSSAA Handbook during a single Uniform Dead Period. The Uniform Dead Period replaces the current dead period that begins at the “end of season” for fall sports.
2) Fall coaches may be involved in post-season workouts, conditioning, observation, and other voluntary activities until the beginning of the Dead Period in a coaching capacity with students in their school or on non-school teams, in the same manner as spring coaches currently “may be involved in a coaching capacity with students in their school in summer programs or on non-school teams.”
__________________________________________
Principal
__________________________________________ Date_______________
Athletic Director