I was just wondering how much time your state allows for pre season for high school ball? Also, what are you allowed to do in the off season?

In Kentucky we officially start on Feb. 15th no matter what day of the week it starts. Our first game is not until the last full week of March. So we pretty much get about six weeks of pre season.

I really don't like that much time. I would rather be able to start playing about two weeks earlier to get more games in - we are allowed 30 and can count one tournament as one game and every tournament after as two games. Only problem is the weather - it stinks.

In the summer we can do anything except for a two week dead period where no coach is allowed contact with their players in any sport. During the school year we can condition but cannot bring out any equipment and instruct.

I am pretty sure Indiana is worse. All of their sports only get two weeks of pre season (that is ridiculous) but not sure what they can do in the off season.

What about everyone else?

In Washington the High School coaches can coach Summer ball but once that ends they cannot teach any aspect of the game to their players until school ball starts the following year.

General conditioning is allowed so long as it is not sport-specific and open to everyone. My son has been doing off-season training with his Summer team and also on his own at my health club.

We are allowed only 20 games, not counting playoffs. Pretty pathetic, but the Summer and Fall weather here (in Eastern Washington) is outstanding and my son played over 80 very competitive games in that period.

Kansas:
Practice here begins Feb. 26.
20 Regular season games and then single elim playoffs. (we are trying all the time to get more)
Coach can work with kids over summer until Labor Day. then no instruction till beginning of season.
I'd sure like us to be able to at least work with pitchers indoors or something, they are not usually ready by the time games start... (some get themselves ready, sure... but I think you get my drift.)

In Texas, we started practice Monday and we start scrimmages next Monday! Two weeks of scrimmages and we're playing games on Feb 19th. I would like to see one more week of practice before the first scrimmages to give us a little more time for tryouts. Next year, they passed a rule to help a little - we get to start the previous Friday.

Around the first week in November morning workouts begin at 5:45 AM which focus on strength (weight) training and core training (plyo's and lunges, etc) on alternating days. They get Friday off.

In Florida our players can get out on the baseball field January 15th. The team then plays about 26 games including tournaments on the Varsity schedule. We host a pre-season tournament on 2/7 and our regular schedule begins the following week.

The weather has been very good up until this week when the temperature dropped into the 40's. Two days so far with rain, but we have a new covered batting cage.

We are in a pretty tough district so it will be tough to advance to post season play.

We start this year February 26. We play our first game March 23. WE have a ton of games early this year as we tried to accomondate some other team's conference changes. 35 Games again this year.

Floridafan you have no idea how luck you are to get weather in the 40s. If we got weather in the 40s we celebrate in Kentucky with parties. I spend the first month of the preseason on our schools parking lot. We are so poor we can't afford quickdry or tarps to help us.

If you can ship some of that weather up north we would love to have it.

Good luck with the season.

I know what you mean! One of our Varsity Coaches, Conrad is his last name used to be a HS Coach for about 20 years in Kentucky, around Lexington (he is "retired" and now one of our assistant coaches). We hear it all the time about how cold it was playing and practicing up there! LOL! He used to bring his team down to our area over spring break and play us, I believe that is how he hooked up with us after he retired up in Kentucky.

Here in NC official practice starts on 2-12. We can have two scrimmage games before the official season begins. We scrimmage on 2-17 and 2-21 and begin the regular season on 2-23. We have basically 5 or 6 days if the weather is good to evaluate the new guys and make decisions. Our guys work out real hard in the off season so we are ok with a short pre season. But it does make it tough sometimes. It is one reason we encourage the younger guys to come out to the off season workouts so we can get a longer look at them. Our off season is regulated by the NCHSSAA so we can not have more than 8 guys a day doing baseball related stuff. But we can condition as many as we like as long as we do not do baseball. We play 24 regular season games 3 conference tourney games and the playoffs are four rounds of single elimination and then two rounds of 2-3. Good Luck to all you guys this season.

quote:

I am pretty sure Indiana is worse. All of their sports only get two weeks of pre season (that is ridiculous) but not sure what they can do in the off season.

From the IHSAA web site.

First practice - 3/12
First game - 3/26
Total games allowed - 28 without a tournament, 26 with

I'm not sure how the pre season really works. I do know that our HS team does start conditioning prior to the official start date. And after the season is over, the coach can work with the entire team until school begins again in Sept. There is a limit on the number of kids he can work with at the same time as long as school is in session.

As an Indiana parent.....the IHSAA really sucks!!!

Thanks for putting that sportsfan5. A guy I know who teaches across the river told me about this rule. I couldn't believe it. How can you expect any team / sport to be ready in two weeks. That is crazy. Surely the coaches could organize and force a change.

In Massachusetts, first practice is the 3rd monday in march with games starting 1st week of April. Iam pretty sure Coaches are not allowed to work with players during the summer, fall or winter. Most coaches will send pitchers to an instructor before the season starts and try to set up a hitting program, but they are not allowed to instruct.

Its funny that you guys talk about kentucky being cold. Here in wisconsin we dont get to start until march 19th this year and then after that first week of practice we head down to Kentucky for a week of games. After that week we come back up here and play 20 games. Its perfect around May, but coming back from Kentucky in the 60 and 70 degree weather to the 30 and 40 degree weather is rediculous.

That's a great point DPHSbasbllplyer - there is always someone somewhere who will have it worse than you do. I couldn't imagine the cold you guys put up with. You are more than welcome to our good old Kentucky hospitality anytime you want.

Im in NY (long island, nassau county) practice starts March 5th, games by mid march.

Just to make everyone feel better, imagine being a baseball player in Iowa. The first practice doesn't start until May with maybe the first game the end of May. After playing the whole month of June, most teams are out of the playoffs by the middle of July.

Coaches are not to work with hitters except during the short season.

Chicago, we start workouts the last week of February.

1st games are the 2nd week of April after spring break.

SBK, Im in Iowa also. It is terrible in Iowa. We can work with pitchers and catchers anytime. We are in a small school where the same baseball players are playing football and basketball. We don't officially starting to work with pitchers until the end of February. Some throw on their own before that. The thing I hate the most is not being able to work with hitters until practice starts. Practice starts April 30th, first games start May 21st.