NFHS Rules Changes 2009 (Sort of)

[Tim C]

Mr. Umpire:

1. Eliminate the practice of umpires inspecting helmets and bats. The coach should be responsible for the condition of his equipment.

The NFHS tabled the request to not inspect bats and caps, made officially by Oregon, because it caught the committee by surprise.

By "surprise" the real issue is that the change would have to be accepted by the NFHS insurance carrier. This review takes time.

The NFHS base insurance carrier is a different company than the company that backs the NCAA plan.

This part of the process was expected and that is why the issue was tabled and not voted down.

2. Eliminate the courtesy runner, if not completely, at least for the pitcher.

Two separate points here:

1) The second most importnat philosophy (behind safety) is to increase participation of students.

That being said:

2) The courtesy runner is by state adoption ONLY. Convince your state to not use the rule and you are home free. (Oregon does not use the CR rule and next season all schools will be reminded of that).

3. Replace Fed pitching regulations with the OBR pitching regulatrions, verbatim.

I ask you to remember that 94% of all rules are brought to committee by coaches. If coaches were in favor of this change I would expect to see changes. Also, the NFHS thinks that their rules should be intrinsically different from OBR as they are trying to accomplish something vastly different from teams that play OBR.

4. Replace the FED FPSR with NCAA's FPSR

Again we tried but the change was tabled as it must be approved by the NFHS administration and insurance carrier. This issue is not dead.