Ohio High School Athletic Association
Lauren Prochaska, Director of Sport Management
Softball Coaches Memo #2 - February 22, 2019
Involvement with Travel Teams
There have been many questions on this from parents and coaches. By now, nearly everyone is aware that participating with a player’s club/travel team is not permitted during the season. The REAL language of the regulation prohibits the player’s involvement
while they are a member of the school team. Therein lies the confusion – a player becomes
a member of the school team when she participates in her first scrimmage or game for the school team. Let’s take this scenario – practice began on Feb. 18. Your first scrimmage is March 3. The player does not become a member of the school team until she plays in the scrimmage on March 3. What does that mean? It means that she does not violate the non-interscholastic rule if she participates with her club/travel team until Mach 3. But…we also give the authority to all school programs
to prohibit any outside instruction (which includes participating with club/travel ball) the day you begin practice if you make that policy known and clear to all players/parents. The bottom line, unless you prohibit it up until your first scrimmage or game, they do not violate the non-interscholastic rule up until that time by having any involvement with their club/travel team.
Rules Meeting
Make sure you complete the required state rules meeting prior to
Thursday, March 21 at 11:59 pm to avoid the $50 late fee. If you’ve already completed the meeting, you can verify that you received attendance credit by logging into your myOHSAA account, clicking on the Rules Meetings tab and clicking My State Meeting Attendance on the left-hand side. You should see a date and time stamp of completion.
Scrimmage Note
Scrimmages can be used at any time throughout the season. If you are not able to get your allotted scrimmages in during the rainy/cold weather, you may use them during the season or during tournament. Just make certain that if YOU count it as a scrimmage – it is a scrimmage for the other team as well. It cannot be a scrimmage for one team and a regular season game for the opponent.
Cold Weather/Minimum Temperature?
I am often asked this in the early weeks of the season – do we (the OHSAA) establish a minimum temperature? The answer is “no” – it would be virtually impossible for us to do that. Your league COULD establish this if they choose to do so.
Out of State Participation
1. Schools may travel out of state to a BORDERING state to compete with no restrictions
2. Schools may travel out of state to NON-bordering states ONE TIME per season provided no school is missed traveling to/from or for competition.
3. Schools may travel out of state to scrimmage and compete in regular season games.
4. Any scrimmage or game played against any team in-state or out-of-state must be considered the same type of contest for both teams. In other words, if it is a scrimmage for YOUR team it must be a scrimmage for the other team as well.
5. Any contest played out of state MUST be played by all NFHS Softball Playing Rules.
6. Licensed umpires must be used in all games played in-state or out-of-state.
Transfer Bylaw
Please consult with your Athletic Director on any transfers participating on your team. There was a major change to the transfer bylaw this year that now requires students who transferred after May 16, 2018, and who do not meet an exception, to sit out the second half of the season, including the OHSAA tournament. Your AD will be able to assist you on any questions related to this.
Softball Regional/State Draw
The softball regional/state draw has been conducted and is posted on the softball webpage at this link:
https://www.ohsaa.org/Port