Oregon Sports
OSAA ditching 'Rule of 2' will help shrink economic divide in 6A
Posted June 11, 2017
Centennial football coach Chris Knudsen (Photo by Randy Rasmussen)
By Jerry Ulmer | The Oregonian/OregonLive
As a high school football coach in a low-income area, Centennial’s Chris Knudsen has been fighting an uphill battle.
The private camps and clinics that many players in more affluent areas attend during the offseason haven’t exactly been accessible to Knudsen’s players.
“The last time I had a kid that was able to afford one of those was four or five years ago,” Knudsen said. “And he could only go sporadically.”
Thanks to an OSAA rule change, though, Knudsen’s players will have a new opportunity.
West Linn girls basketball coach Jared Curtiss (Photo by Kent Frasure)
Since 1997, coaches for out-of-season team sports have been restricted by the OSAA’s practice limitation rule, widely known as the Rule of 2. Coaches have been permitted to work with only two of their athletes at a time outside of their sport’s designated season during the school year.
Spurred by Class 6A athletic directors, the OSAA has agreed to try something different for Class 6A in 2017-18. A one-year pilot program will allow coaches for out-of-season team sports to work with an unlimited number of their athletes at a time during the association year.
“With this new rule, our kids will be able to be coached by our coaches and get the same treatment as a kid at some of the higher socio-economic areas,” Knudsen said. “And I think that’s really good for the low-income kid. We’re kind of excited for the rule because we’ll be able to keep up with some of the other schools.”
Coaches from schools in more affluent areas, such as West Linn girls basketball coach Jared Curtiss, agree that the new rule is a positive step.
“I think it levels the playing field for schools, not like us, but for schools with kids who don’t have access to good coaching,” Curtiss said. “It gives us some more time with our players, and it offers some trust that we’re going to teach our kids fundamental basketball.”
West Salem (black) vs. Jesuit volleyball (Billy Gates/Staff)
Class 6A representatives began their push for a change at the state athletic directors conference last year. By altering the rule, the OSAA is making coaches more accessible to students, many of whom seek out private coaches and clubs to fill the gap during the school year.
“The current Rule of 2, in their minds, pushes kids to find outside coaches, a lot of which could be cost-prohibitive for families,” OSAA executive director Peter Weber said. “And you don’t know necessarily who those people are.
“But they have their own coaches, who they obviously trust, and want the kids to work with. And they wanted to see if there was a way to get them some more time with their kids to develop skills.”
The new rule will have some limits.
Out-of-season team sports will have a six-week “closed period” that begins on the first practice date for fall, winter and spring sports. During those six weeks, the only activity permitted is conditioning.
“They didn’t want to have a basketball player say, ‘I’m not going out for football, I’m not going out for soccer, I can just start practice with my basketball coach,’” Weber said. “That came about as a way to protect the in-season students and programs. For those kids that aren’t participating, it provides them an opportunity before the traditional practice start date.”
Once that six-week closed period expires, coaches can work with their athletes for up to nine hours per week during an “open period,” which ends when the next season begins.
“We’re not going to go anywhere near the nine hours,” Knudsen said. “We’re going to attack it football-wise like those private ones, where we’ll go two hours a week or so."
Mountainside girls basketball coach Glen Lee (Photo by Bovianna Somsanouk)
Former Lincoln girls basketball coach Glen Lee -- who is starting the program at the new Beaverton school, Class 6A Mountainside – said the open period will give teams adequate time to get ready for the season, something they were missing under the old guidelines.
“We used to be able to start practice on Nov. 1, so we used to have a whole month before we played,” Lee said. “We were starting Nov. 13, and your first game is 2 ½ weeks later. I think this is going to help refresh kids’ minds and memories of what we’re trying to get accomplished. When that Nov. 13 date comes, you’re always scrambling to get things in. So this is a great opportunity to get some of that stuff out of the way.”
During the open period, coaches are prohibited from coaching students in a practice, scrimmage or game that involves anyone other than students at the school.
“The thought was that if you start to open it up to contests, then you’ve really just basically extended the season all the way through,” Weber said. “The emphasis again was on skill development.”
The new rule has potential drawbacks, however. Perhaps the biggest worry is that it could lead to more single-sport specialization for athletes.
“There’s a lot of concern from some coaches around that it’s to the detriment of three-sport athletes,” Knudsen said. “And it certainly could be if it’s not done correctly. But I also think if it’s done correctly, it could enhance the kids in three sports.”
Lee doesn’t believe the rule will encourage specialization.
“It’s how each school, administration and coaching staff approaches it,” Lee said. “The biggest thing is not to put pressure on kids that they have to be there if they’re playing a fall sport.
“It’s so far along after the fall sports start that I don’t think you’re going to have that issue. Are you telling me a kid is going to wait six weeks just because they know that Coach Lee is going to be running something? I don’t think so.”
Centennial boys basketball coach Osa Esene (Photo by Megan Connelly)
The rule change also could give some high-profile programs a broader reach within their schools, potentially drawing athletes away from lower-profile programs. To avoid such scenarios, schools need to draw their own boundaries.
“One of the rules we’re going to have at Centennial is the coaches have to talk,” Knudsen said. “So if I’m going to do that, I’ve got to talk with the basketball coach. During the football season, if he wants the quarterback to come into basketball open gym, what I’ve done with coaches in the past is say they can work on shooting, but not scrimmaging.”
It’s possible, too, that by allowing coaches greater access to their athletes, it could put pressure on coaches to work long hours without additional compensation.
“Sometimes we have rules to protect coaches from themselves,” Weber said. “If Joe down the street is practicing five nights a week, does that mean that I need to do that just to keep up with the Joneses? From the athletic directors’ perspective, they thought they’d be able to work with their coaches on that and kind of have some local control in that area.
“That’s one of the things we heard from coaches in other classifications, that, ‘Hey, we’re not necessarily interested in that because we’re not trying to extend that time that we’re working. I can’t imagine schools paying coaches more to do that."