ATHLETES HIT THE BIG TIME WITH A BIG AMOUNT OF TIME

Summer practices can make sports a year-round activity for high schoolers

For most students, the sound of the final bell on the last day of school signifies the beginning of nearly three months of relaxation.

But not for student-athletes.

Thanks to a 2001 rule change by the Indiana High School Athletic Association, sports participants spend much of their summer in physical training.

Other than the week of July 4 and the week before the official start of practice, athletes can practice, as long as coaches don't make it mandatory and they don't use it as criteria on which to select a team.

At North Central High School, whose 3,415 students make it one of the largest Indiana high schools, coaches feel compelled to take advantage of the rule.

"Given the level of competition that we're on, the schools we compete against and the number of sports that we're in, our student athletes are going year-round," said Chuck Jones, athletic director at North Central. "So, open summer participation just means that these student athletes are just that much busier. But that's OK as long as there's some control, some limitations on it. We try to monitor it a little bit."

At West Central High School in Francesville, which has about 300 students, the rule is not viewed as a mandate, according to Chuck Evans, athletic director and assistant principal.

"I had mixed feelings to begin with," he said. "I thought there'd be a lot of battles between the coaches wanting the kids to participate in their sport throughout the entire summer."

But, he said, the rule change hasn't caused any problems. "From a coaching standpoint, we can get (the athletes) more active and doing more things and keeping them going throughout the summer instead of them sitting around and maybe not progressing," Evans said.

Jones agrees that coaches are better able to prepare athletes for upcoming seasons.

Rick Streiff, football coach at North Central, organizes practices for his players over the summer.

"In the off-season, we have optional practices three days a week that are only an hour long. We try to minimize it so kids can be kids," Streiff said. "We start at 6 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and weight train and do agility work until 7:15. I chose to start that early because there's nothing else happening at 6 in the morning."

Streiff says that sports are demanding more out of athletes throughout the year because it is important to keep up with the competition.

"To continue to compete, we're asking for more out-of-season practice," he said. "There's no downtime for coaches, either, because if you aren't practicing, you're behind and someone's beating you."

Evans' biggest reservation about the rule change is that it might ask too much of athletes.

"It's requiring them maybe to commit more time in the summer than what they have had to do in the past," he said, "and that takes away from what I like to say is good family time."

He is especially concerned about students who play multiple sports at West Central.

"Our teams have been successful because some student-athletes play all three seasons," he said.

Yet North Central cross- country coach William Naas says the IHSAA has made an effort to give athletes time off.

"I think that the IHSAA does a nice job trying to balance practice time with breaks," he said. "There are two moratorium weeks required by the IHSAA, and during those weeks practice isn't allowed."

Jones says that some students might feel overwhelmed. "It's not impossible that you could have a student athlete going virtually every day, week after week, and that's not a good situation. We try to prevent that."

To ease the burden, Jones said coaches "do a great job" of coordinating summer practice.

"If we have the basketball team having practice or going to a summer league game, then those guys don't have to worry about being at a football workout," he explained.

"We have a tremendous pool of talented kids. But in this day and age and with the competition we have within our conference at the big-school level, if you're not willing to work hard, you're not going to succeed."

REPORTERS: Anna Beyer, 12; Katie McDowell, 13; Alyse Phillips, 11.