07/27/12 – Reminders about Rules Clinics, Apps available, General Practice

July 27, 2012 Football Blog Updates

Good morning. Hope all of you are doing everything you can to avoid the heat and are 100% complying with the Heat Index monitoring and reporting programs. For many of you, these days begin the new days with shoulder pads and helmets only, so reminders about heat are very important. Just a few general notes.

Practice Before Scrimmage

Many of you have very tight windows of preseason practice with the new revisions to the 5-3-5 requirements. I have had several inquiries about that 13th day and a scrimmage. Some have said they have 5 days helmets only, then 3 days with shoulder pads, then five days in full gear and on that 5th day, have a scrimmage. Keep in mind that because that fifth practice is full gear, you would need the full three hour break after the first practice, before scrimmaging could begin against an outside opponent. So it would likely not be possible to have a morning scrimmage on that fifth day.

Schedules

A surprising number of teams have not completed entry of your schedule for this year, despite many long expired deadlines. Please go to the scoreboard page at http://scoreboard.12dt.com/scoreboard/khsaa/kyfb12 and ensure that all of your games have been entered. If you need to login and add the missing games, you can do so through the main page at khsaa.org by clicking on school login and following the links.

Rules Clinics

Reminder that the rules clinics will go live on July 30, and remain free until August 22. New this year, as we have reminded you on multiple occasions, ALL of your assistant coaches must complete the clinic (as individuals) in order to be able to coach. They will be held to the same fine schedule, etc as the head coaches and officials if they do not login and complete the clinic by August 22. If you have assistant coaches that are having login difficulties, etc., those questions should be referred to your AD or other school administrator in charge of athletics. If that person is having issues, have the AD contact Rob Catron in our office. The schedule, including fine schedule, is at www.khsaa.org/clinics/20122013/clinicschedule.pdf

Apps

I guess the saying is correct, there truly is an “app for that”. Three apps you should be aware of as a coach.

The KHSAA continues to maintain a scoreboard app. The 2012-2013 data will be loaded in a couple of weeks and it remains a good resource for checking things out on the road. It is available only in IOS (iPhone, iPad, etc.) and not android at this time. Our plans for this fall include allowing permitted users the ability to enter scores through the scoreboard, hopefully minimizing your needs to call in scores, etc. An information link is at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/khsaa-riherds.com-high-school/id418722085?mt=8

Another app has been introduced by Vanderbilt University which could help as we all try to ensure health and safety for student athletes. The app takes data from various nearby meteorological sites to give you the approximate heat index and in particular, will warn you of lightning in the area. This could be of great help. Though the heat index information on the app DOES NOT count as the official heat index reading at the practice or game site, it would be of great help in letting you know where trouble spots are located.

The app is available for both iOS (Apple) and Android versions of phones and pads. For information on the iOS app, go to http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/coachsmart/id523269171?mt=8 and for information on the Android version, visit https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.vanderbilt.coachapp&hl=en. Both versions are free.

More later. Bookmark/favorite this blog so you can visit it often!