By NATHANIEL TESKA-PRINCE
SUNY Oswego
(This story originally appeared in Oswego County News Now)
The New York State Public High School Athletic Association is permanently implementing a scheduling change to their future football seasons.
After testing out an additional week across the duration of the 2024 fall football season, the association recently announced that they plan to move forward with the format.
Dr. Robert Zayas, the executive director of the NYSPHSAA, said that football historically always had an extra week and started before the other fall sports. When the schedule was changed and the extra week was removed, it didn’t take long for association officials to realize that their football programs weren’t getting enough time to truly be prepared for the mental and physical demands of a two to three-month season.Now, schools will have much-needed flexibility. The season, which was condensed to 15 total weeks, forced teams to choose between competing in a scrimmage and seven regular-season games, or passing up the traditional dress rehearsal in favor of eight games.
After reinstating the 16th week, high schools can now have the best of both worlds. Teams that do not qualify for sectionals can arrange another exhibition as well, Zayas said.
He clarified that the measure would not add any more regular-season games to team schedules and the end of the fall season would not be extended.
With state championship games typically in the first weekend of December, it is likely the 10th game on the schedule, possibly the 11th if the team opted to play a “week zero” game that didn’t count toward postseason play.
By that time, the winter sports seasons for most schools are already underway. Student-athletes that play basketball as well as football can miss the preseason and even a couple of games.
The last few weeks of the football season create a time conflict, so the prospect of elongating it any further is out of the question.
“I mean, we can’t have more games, we already have our championships on that weekend, so we’re not adding additional games or anything like that,” Zayas said.
Though this change implemented by the NYSPHSAA will not result in extra football, Zayas said that he hopes it will improve the on-field product by giving schools adequate time to prepare and for coaches to have a greater impact on their students through working with them for an extended period.
“I think you know with the season the way we have it, the more time we can have football players on the field, the greater their football IQ,” Zayas said.
Bishop Ludden football head coach Melvin Baker, who took over the program last spring and led his team to the Section III championship game in year one, credited the new format as a key piece to the puzzle.
“I felt like having an opportunity to have a scrimmage and a week zero game gave us a good build-up for our first official game against Chittenango,” Baker explained.“I felt like for me as a first-year coach, and everybody in a new role in terms of my staff, having that extra week of preseason camp was certainly beneficial.”
In his opinion, part of the challenge presented by preseason is simply maintaining interest and keeping the players focused day after day.
Allowing them to clash with another team earlier than before helped the coach instill a sense of urgency that may not have been present otherwise. The team was better as a result.
“Day after day after day, bumping up and competing against your teammate, versus hey, in two weeks we got a scrimmage,” Baker said.“Two weeks of camp flew by, and we were able to keep the guys focused, and we performed pretty well.”
His son Micah, a senior captain on the team, echoed that analysis.
“I think it was a plus, you know we had a brand new staff from top to bottom, giving us a chance to get in the groove of meshing together with new plays, a new system, new teammates, as opposed to having one scrimmage before our official week one game,” he said.
Melvin Baker also acknowledged the reality that football players are sacrificing a week of their summer, which could complicate the start of camp for some students. He says people may have to go on their vacations a week earlier as a result.
Zayas said the main objective of the NYSPHAA, above all, is to prepare kids for the next level of their lives off the field — in whatever they may be doing.
“My goal is to always find a way to get kids involved in their school community,” Zayas said. “Find a way to get student-athletes involved in participating within their school. Ultimately, the lessons learned are going to last a lifetime, so our priority is getting students involved in high school athletics.”
• Nat Teska-Prince is a journalism student at Oswego State University.
