How the VPA refined its policy on out-of-season coaching restrictions

The Vermont Principals' Association has applied a little more ink to its out-of-season coaching policy in an effort to make it more black-and-white than before.

The result?

High school coaches can now direct teams at any level within their sport's season. And the VPA has eliminated a long-standing caveat that previously allowed high school coaches to lead their children's club teams at any point during the calendar year.

The new rules went into effect Aug. 1, with the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus first reporting on the new regulations earlier this month. The VPA's Bob Johnson discussed the changes on Thursday with members of the media.

"This was an interesting process and, to be honest, I was a bit surprised at how some things turned out," said Johnson, the organization's associate executive director.

The origin 

The incident that led the state's athletic directors to review the rule occurred last winter.

South Burlington boys basketball coach Sol Bayer-Pacht had planned to take on head coaching duties for his program's Mini Metro middle school squad — his day job in the food industry slows down enough in the winter and the schedules appeared to line up favorably. The youth team's Sunday games wouldn't interfere with the varsity calendar.

"It seemed like the right time for me to try to step in," Bayer-Pacht said. 

The Wolves coach emailed his athletic director, Mike Jabour, to make sure he was correct in his understanding that he could do it within the existing rule "because it's basketball season." He was concerned about the youth team's four games before the high school schedule began, not the other way around.

Miscommunication, however, meant Bayer-Pacht ended up running afoul of the existing interpretation of what constituted "in-season" — it was limited strictly to the coaching bounds of the high school team and season. He was suspended the first week of preseason tryouts.

"We'd never been asked that question before in my years here at the VPA," Johnson said. "The reason we weren't allowing (coaches) to do that was because we didn't want you to give someone an advantage of having you as a coach that somebody else might not have."

What the change means

With this year's revision of the policy by the athletic directors and the VPA's Activities Standards Committee, individuals now have the ability to coach a non-school or youth team in that sport during the high school season.

"The athletic directors debated that item. They were split," Johnson said. "But they finally decided that it would be OK."

The long and short of it: Coaches can coach as much as they want during the summer break and the confines of their sport's season.

Outside those times, it's cold turkey. Open gyms are allowed as long as an invitation is open to every student in the school and there is no coaching of any kind, according to the rule.

Basketball coaches could lead youth camps during February break, which falls inside the confines of the high school basketball season, but not during April if the camp is for players who could potentially end up in the coach's program.

"Just hearing this today, if Bob gets called on that, he's going to have to say to those coaches you can't coach kids who will be on your team in April," VPA executive director Jay Nichols said. "Unless the ADs change this approach and ASC approves a new approach, I think that is how we're going to have to enforce it."

Change for parent-coaches

During the review of the out-of-season policy, the governing bodies also moved to limit what parents can do as coaches of non-school teams.

Closing that loophole now means, for example, a high school soccer coach can no longer coach his or her child's club team if the child is of the same gender as the coach's varsity program. Likewise for a basketball coach trying to lead an AAU program, according to Johnson.

Parents can still work one-on-one with their own children but just can't coach them on a team out of season, Johnson said.

"It's the coaching of a team that I think is a sticking point," he said.

And on the flip side, a boys basketball coach could lead a girls team out-of-season or vice-versa.

Penalties for infractions against either of the new changes are on a case-by-case basis, according to the VPA. They could range from formal written warning to a suspension for games or, most drastically, termination of the ability to coach.

Contact Austin Danforth at 651-4851 or edanforth@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @eadanforth.