NFHS Voice: Source of HS Playing Rules
November 12, 2019
By Karissa Niehoff
NFHS Executive Director
When it comes to writing playing rules for major sports in the United States, it’s all in the acronyms. In football, you have the NFL, NCAA and NFHS. In basketball, it’s the NBA, NCAA and NFHS. In baseball, the rules-makers are MLB, NCAA and NFHS.
While the NFL, NBA, MLB and NCAA can be used on first reference without explanation, many people are unfamiliar with the NFHS. And yet the NFHS has been around as long – or longer – than the other four major sports organizations.
In many cases, references to NFHS rules – not only in these three major sports but the other 14 sports for which the organization writes rules – are simply noted as “high school rules.” The reality, however, is that the NFHS – the National Federation of State High School Associations – has been the national organization most directly focused on sports playing rules in the past 90 years since it published its first Football Rules Book in 1932.
With almost eight million participants in high school sports, NFHS rules are written for more individuals than all other levels of sports combined. As a result, risk minimization and the fundamentals of good sportsmanship are paramount to the rules-writing process for the NFHS and often are the distinguishing factors from rules at the higher levels of the sport.
Perhaps football is the best example of the commitment to risk minimization. In the mid-1970s, the NFHS was at the forefront of change when it outlawed spearing in high school football. The 1976 rule revision changed the landscape of high school football from an injury standpoint – from a high of 36 direct fatalities in 1968 to an average of about two per year by 2018.
Some people have questioned why there are multiple rules codes for a sport. Very simply, NFHS rules for high school play must be different than at the college and professional levels.
As an example, while professional baseball is concerned with how fast a baseball exits the batter’s box (Velocity Exit Speed) and how far the ball travels on a home run, the NFHS has enacted bat standards during the past 20 years to reduce the speed of balls coming off aluminum bats. In wrestling, the NFHS has enacted strict weight-management plans to reduce the risk of health issues. In ice hockey, while fighting is an accepted part of the sport at the professional level, NFHS rules have strict rules prohibiting all forms of unsportsmanlike conduct. In football, NFHS rules do not permit the excessive celebration displays following touchdowns that occur during NFL games.
In addition to risk minimization and sportsmanship, the NFHS must also weigh financial implications for schools when considering equipment and uniform changes. With schools ranging in size from less than 100 to more than 5,000 students, decisions must be made for the masses and cannot put undue financial hardships on schools.
NFHS rules are also written with the understanding that appropriate behavior begins with the coach, who is responsible for ensuring that his or her team exhibits good sporting behavior. Many penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct on the team are first directed against the coach.
While the NFHS and its member state associations govern the high school place in various sports – not only with playing rules but other issues as well – we maintain relationships with the National Governing Bodies (NGBs) in these sports to assist in meeting the needs of all participants.
Last week, the NFHS hosted a summit of various leaders of NGBs in Indianapolis. Leaders from about 15 NGBs were set to meet with NFHS staff to discuss various initiatives and opportunities for collaborative programs. We hope this is the first of many such meetings as it is crucial that all levels of sport work together to ensure ongoing opportunities for all sports participants.
Dr. Karissa L. Niehoff is in her second year as executive director of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is the first female to head the national leadership organization for high school athletics and performing arts activities and the sixth full-time executive director of the NFHS, which celebrated its 100th year of service during the 2018-19 school year. She previously was executive director of the Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference for seven years.
MHSAA Teams Up for Leadership Training
October 2, 2014
By Rob Kaminski
MHSAA benchmarks editor
Nothing strengthens a community like neighbors working together. The same can be said for organizations whose missions and goals are closely aligned.
Welcome to East Lansing, where the MHSAA and the Michigan State University Institute for the Study of Youth Sports share geographical boundaries and the same philosophies for educational athletics.
The ISYS mission, as stated on its website, is as follows: “The mission of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports is to provide leadership, scholarship and outreach that ‘transforms’ the face of youth sports in ways that maximize the beneficial physical, psychological, and social effects of participation for children and youth while minimizing detrimental effects.”
That should sound familiar to athletic leaders within the MHSAA.
Key to the relationship between the MHSAA and the ISYS was the hiring of Dan Gould to the MSU faculty in 2004. Director of the ISYS, he helped to facilitate one of the first major initiatives between the ISYS and the MHSAA, which was to revamp the coaches education program, replacing the PACE program with the Coaches Advancement Program (CAP). Dr. Larry Lauer of the ISYS was heavily involved in creation of the CAP under the direction of MHSAA Assistant Director Kathy Vruggink Westdorp.
At the same time, Dr. Gould also led a study with athletic directors and coaches throughout the state to understand the greatest issues in high school sports. Additionally, to continue the ISYS mission to disseminate research findings, Dr. Marty Ewing, Dr. Gould, and a number of the ISYS graduate students have been presenters at the MHSAA Women in Sport Leadership Conference.
Such services have now become a natural fit into the development of the MHSAA’s student leadership programs, providing huge dividends to those in the ISYS program and the MHSAA.
“The mutually beneficial relationship led to a joint project to enhance student-athlete development with a specific focus on leadership development,” said Scott Westfall, one of two ISYS graduate students who work closely with MHSAA Director of Brand Management Andy Frushour.
Frushour spearheads the student-based programs at the MHSAA with assistance from Andi Osters and Paige Winne. Among the first ISYS students to work with the MHSAA were Dana Voelker and Jed Blanton, who helped conceptualize the Captains Clinics curriculum. Today at the clinics, ISYS graduate students lead one-day seminars that provide student-athletes with insight on how to understand themselves as leaders, build key leadership skills and handle tough situations on their teams.
Currently, Westfall and Scott Pierce are the ISYS members providing their time and expertise with the MHSAA Student Advisory Council, Captains Clinics, and a new Online Captains Course set to debut this school year.
The Course is student-driven, with two SAC members serving as the faces of the program. Such peer delivery is vital to delivering the messages.
“Students often view leadership from teachers, coaches and administrators as regular, everyday activity. While adults are highly respected figures, students often see adults as outsiders who do not fully understand what it is like to walk a mile in their shoes,” Westfall said.
“The power is rooted in the peer-to-peer relationships and mutual empathy, as student-athletes are very close in age. Student-based leadership is often held with higher validity because the student leader is likely experiencing many of the same adversities and temptations as the peers on his or her team.”
Adding value and credence to the opinions of the ISYS staff is the fact they are steeped in research. The ISYS can gear its efforts to surveys and field studies that the MHSAA, due to staff constraints, cannot. It’s what the ISYS does; it’s the forte of its staff, and the findings help to shape CAP, the SAC and Captains Clinics.
“Research tells us that when kids get to middle school and high school, peer comparison has a really strong influence on how students and student-athletes act and behave,” said Pierce. “Based on this, we believe that student leaders can, and do, act as important role models on the field and in the classroom.
“It is not always easy for students to stand up as leaders because often times this means standing up and being different. So while student-based leadership is vitally important, it doesn't happen automatically. It needs to be talked about and developed over time.”
The MHSAA Captains Clinics and upcoming online course, it is believed, are examples of programs which can develop leaders.
“One of the leadership quotes we used in Tier 1 of the online student leadership course is from Vince Lombardi. It states: ‘Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price which all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile,’” said Westfall. “This type of sentiment, combined with the joint belief between the ISYS and the MHSAA that leadership skills can be taught and cultivated, leads us to believe that leadership can be developed in an individual.”
Through such development, real inroads can be made to promote sportsmanship, teamwork and citizenship in school sports. It’s a worthwhile endeavor for participants, both attendee and instructor.
“Our staff finds the MHSAA Captains Clinics to be some of the most enjoyable and rewarding work that we do,” Pierce said. “The events focus on building leadership in the student-athletes, and give us (ISYS) an ideal opportunity to put our research and scientific knowledge into practice with the students and have a lot of fun doing so.”
Throughout the year, Frushour works with schools and conferences to schedule dates and locations for the clinics. For each day-long clinic, three to five ISYS staff lead a series of workshops for high school student-athletes. The workshops focus on building the four key pillars of leadership – motivation, communication, positive peer-modeling and team cohesion – and have the students involved in discussions, group activities, journaling and role plays.
“We are always trying to find new ways to integrate the new knowledge that we acquire about leadership and trying to reach as many students as possible,” said Pierce, alluding to the forthcoming Online Captains Course. “The online course aims to build off the great things the MHSAA and the ISYS have done with the Captains Clinics.”
A tremendous amount of enthusiasm surrounds the project, and for good reason. The track record of the MHSAA-ISYS partnership reflects a successful venture that might just be hitting stride.
“Over the past 15 years, the relationship between the ISYS and the MHSAA has blossomed. It is to the credit of the forward-thinking MHSAA staff members along with the ISYS faculty and graduate students that this relationship is stronger than ever,” Westfall said. “With the arrival of Dr. Karl Erickson to the ISYS this fall, the upcoming MHSAA coaching requirements for CAP courses, and the launch of the Online Captains Course, the future looks bright for the ISYS-MHSAA team.”
PHOTO: Scott Westfall from the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports conducts a Captains Clinic session as part of his work with the MHSAA.