Should spring be a time for football?
Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com
Spring football practice has started in some states -- states like Florida, Mississippi and Vermont. That's right, Vermont.
The Vermont Principals' Association allows six days of spring practice each year. The practices must be voluntary and contact is not allowed. Helmets and cleats are the only equipment permitted.
"It's nothing new," Springfield (Vt.) coach Mike Hatt said. "Coaches do it in a variety of ways. Some people take advantage of it between (winter and spring) seasons. Others do it after spring sports are over.
"What we do is go from 6:30 to 7:45 in the morning. It's a whole lot easier to do it in the morning than in the afternoon in the spring."
The six days can be used consecutively, but that is not mandatory. Rutland (Vt.) coach Mike Norman said his team practices for three days before spring sports start, and three more after the spring sports season ends.
Hatt and Norman, who are both athletic directors, said the key is to not pull athletes away from other spring sports.
"You can't be having it when baseball is in session," Norman said. "Our goal is to try and get them refocused. It's good for our freshmen. We just want to throw it all at them so when they come back in August nothing is new."
Dover coach Ken Osbon is among those who would like to see spring football practice make its way to New Hampshire.
"If it was done correctly I don't think it would (negatively) impact anybody," Osbon said. "I used to talk to (former Spaulding coach) Hugo Bolin about this and he said there were two or three times when he presented it to the NHIAA football committee.
"Six days would be awesome. You could do a lot."
Hatt, who will coach Vermont in this summer's Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl, said his spring practices are more mental than physical.
"We use it more as a classroon," Hatt said. "We don't use it as a workout. It think it's proven valuable. We definitely use it as a teaching tool."
Osbon said one of the reasons he schedules a Thanksgiving Day game every year -- Dover currently plays Portsmouth on Thanksgiving -- is to get extra practice time for his players.
"I'd definitely advocate it," Norman said. "There's really no reason not to do it."
