Advocacy Blog: NFHS and High School Rules

by | Jun 12, 2019 | Association News, Coaches Community

The NFHS Rules committee met for two days this past January. While the actual votes on specific rules proposals cannot be discussed or revealed I would say the votes were very positive from the coach’s perspective. The United Soccer Coaches perspective was asked for and listened to in all the discussions.

The NFHS works from a specific perspective in administering the rules committee. The general guidelines and the charge of the committee are as follows 10 primary goals. In order:

  1. Fair Play
  2. Risk Management
  3. Adaptability
  4. Balance between Offense and Defense
  5. Codification
  6. Exceptions
  7. Brevity
  8. Simplicity
  9. Definitions
  10. Logical Organization

Appointed as the NFHS Coaches Association representative was Mark Berkowitz, the Athletic Director at the Weston High School in Connecticut. Mark was a long time high school head soccer coach in both Illinois and Connecticut. Mark even has a state championship to his credit.

Also new this year representing District 2 is John Johnson, the longtime head of the Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association. Having two coaches in the meetings was really a huge step forward for us. We were able to meet as a small group Monday evening to review the proposals. Mark and John were tremendous voices for the coaches this year.

Additional Items of Interest:

  1. The NFHS annual rules survey will be made available to all our coaches for next year. The details and timing (late September) are being worked out.
  2. We should survey our coaches about “heat breaks” during matches. Having a state-by-state breakdown of which states have a policy and what the varying policies look like would help us inform the NFHS what is out there and our suggestions for moving forward.
  3. We should also do the same for “Yellow Card “Accumulation rules throughout the states. Both of the above issues are rising in importance and we should have our information and suggestions to help us provide leadership.
  4. United Soccer Coaches can nominate coaches for Induction into the NFHS Hall of Fame. It would be my suggestion we nominate one coach each year.

Respectfully,
Greg Mauch