The New York State high school football season is heading back to a longer training camp.
A motion presented by the NYSPHSAA football state committee to move the start date to Aug. 21 was approved Wednesday, followed by an amendment from the executive committee to start on Aug. 19.
The move to start the season sooner than the previously announced Aug. 24 date, now allows teams across the state to have more time to prepare for the season. Teams in Section VI and Niagara County now have up to 18 or 19 days again leading to opening kickoff, instead of only 12 to 14 days in recent years.
The later start date for the sport disappeared three years ago in order to add an eighth game to its regular season. The schedule will once again have an eighth game this season, but now teams have more time to prepare for the whole season.
“The kids were much more prepared going into Week 1, just having the two weeks,” Medina head coach Eric Valley said. “And, we were able to get more in, get more kids up to speed, especially the kids who are just coming out from JV to come prepared to play at that level. … And so, I think that going back to that model is going to help, especially with the younger kids getting them ready to play at the varsity level.”
A Section VI team won’t play on a Thursday until Sept. 12, which is the start of Week 2 on the schedule. This is in contrast to recent seasons, including last season, as Week 1 began with Starpoint facing Health Sciences/Global on Aug. 31.
The extension of the practice time on the front end of the season now allows teams the opportunity to face an opponent for a scrimmage before the games begin with the official return of “Scrimmage Saturday.” Now, having all teams start and see some live snaps before the game helps even the playing field while staying safe.
“We had a very light controlled contact scrimmage with (JFK) two years ago and it was tough,” Starpoint head coach Tim Racey said. “You’re kind of holding back a little bit because you don’t want kids to get hurt right before your first game. But, at the same time, I think this allows for everybody to get on the same page and be able to get all their stuff in.”
When teams only had less than two weeks to practice before kickoff, an injury or two at key positions would impact how much the team could prepare and limit personnel.
Now, with more time before the game, players would have more time to heal up instead of missing an entire week or more, depending on the injury. The ability to keep players safe and limit lengthy injury prevention through rehabbing and prehabbing increases a player’s longevity for only an eight-game season.
“If there’s a day that someone might have a tweaked hamstring or something, now, if they miss a practice, they’re not missing the whole Week 1 game, which is nice,” North Tonawanda head coach Chris Tideswell said. “So, it affords us some time to where we can kind of let things heal, take time to heal, instead of, you roll your ankle Day Two, you’re out until Week 3.”
While there is weight room training and other team workouts during the winter and spring, having the extra time at practice helps build the chemistry and game knowledge among players and coaches. Before he became the head coach at Roy-Hart/Barker last year, C.J. Knight played at Newfane and enjoyed having the extra time to create better chemistry.
On top of having more opportunities for team bonding, Knight envisions having the potential for more players, including dual-sport athletes, joining next season and focusing further on personal development.
“We’re going to focus on you and your development and we’re going to turn you into the player that you may want to be in the future,” Knight said. “Having that extra time may entice them to come and play to where, last year, we were kind of rushing. We couldn’t focus individually as much as we probably wanted to, to where now we can and put a little bit more emphasis on individual development.”