Under a new ruling, athletes must now wait until season

It may only be October, but senior co-captain Chris Martin and the rest of the hockey team have been hard at work for much of the semester with group workout sessions, pick up games, and practices. For the hockey team, as well as many other teams on campus, out-of-season training is nothing new.

"It's essential right now, especially in the NESCAC," Martin said. "I was in the gym all summer and playing in summer leagues. If you don't train in the off-season it's going to take a lot longer to get your legs back once the season comes around."

At Tufts, as at all NCAA schools, it is illegal for teams to practice with a coach until a specific date set prior to the start of the season. For years, teams have gotten around this rule by partaking in "captain's practices" _ full team practices run by the captain until the coach is allowed to join.

But following the recent injury of a Colby hockey player, who was injured during a team practice session because he was not wearing a helmet, the NESCAC has got tough on all out-of-season practices.

After a meeting of all NESCAC schools on Sept 25, the official rule in the NESCAC manual was revised to state that "captains may not conduct organized practices or competitions out of season"

"On field/on court activities called by any member of a team and confined primarily to members of that team are not permissible," the amendment reads. The change effectively bans teams from holding out-of-season team practices, unless attendance at those practices is entirely voluntary.

"The NCAA has specific rules about out-of-season training, and this has long been a rule in the NESCAC," athletic director Bill Gehling said. "This is just sort of reemphasizing an already-existing rule."

But even with the revised rule, individual schools are still left with the task of enforcement, a difficult issue that leaves many open questions.

What constitutes a practice? How many members of a team can train together? What's to stop teammates from simply getting together off campus and training?

"There is little that a school can do, other than deny a team permission to use its equipment and facilities during the off-season," Gehling said. And for teams like hockey, who practice and play games at an off-campus facility, it seems that there may be nothing that can be done to enforce the rule.

"If a fair number of team players get together out of season, it is considered a team activity, which is not allowed, unless it is entirely voluntary," athletic director Bill Gehling said. "My emphasis right now is on voluntary. This is a very difficult thing to enforce."

Indeed, voluntary practices are now, and have always been allowed by the NESCAC. But the question then becomes: how voluntary is voluntary? Frequently there are severe consequences for team members who do not attend practices that are described as entirely voluntary.

"Basically if you don't go, your chance of making the team decreases," Martin said.

And with a spot on the team on the line, most players find a way to get to practice. But some do not see such practices in contradiction with the meaning of "voluntary". Men's lacrosse coach John Daly said that every practice, even during the season, is voluntary.

"I don't really think that anything is required," Daly said. "We all make decisions everyday about what we want to do and where we want to go, so in that vein everything is optional. In the lacrosse program, we recruit to find athletes who are lacrosse junkies and who want to work and improve themselves."

And if athletes have the desire to work on their skills during the off-season, Daly said they should be afforded that right.

"I feel bad for our players," Daly said. "All they want to do is play and compete."

Without captain's practices and out-of-season workouts, many feel that a team's ability to compete is diminished.

"To an extent you can say that you're going to jeopardize your season," Martin said. "It's essential."

Since the new ruling was passed in September, teams have struggled with ways to continue to improve the level of play, while still complying with NESCAC regulations. Many however, are finding ways around the rules.

"At first we thought that this was going to affect us a lot," Martin said. "But the fact that we have an off campus rink changes things a lot. When we talked to Gehling he made it clear that there are a lot of loopholes. We needed to sign a waiver and get consent from him, and we needed to make it look like a pick up game."

Daly said that Gehling had been very supportive because "he wants our teams to have the best chance to win.

"We're right now just trying to sort out how this whole ruling applies to us," he said. "We've got great kids and we've had to make some adjustments, but our guys are lacrosse junkies, so they'll be down in the cage playing one on one if they can't play as a team. They're not going to be denied their lacrosse."