Does NY have any period of the year when the coaches can not work with their athletes? I know they are allowed to coach through NXN, then it appears they jump right into indoor, then outdoor track seasons. I'm sure most school have a summer program.
I coach in another state and we are not allowed to coach after our state xc meet. So we go from early Nov to mid-January with no official contact/practice allowed.
Just curious to the rules in a state with power programs like FM and Saratoga.
NY has indoor track. There are meets between early Nov and mid Jan. So coaches are definitely allowed to coach :)
In Mass coaches can't coach athletes after XC ends (e.g. Mass All-States) until indoor starts (typically first day of school after Thanksgiving), then can't coach after indoor ends until outdoor starts (forget when), and then can't coach after outdoor ends until two weeks before the start of the school year.
The way the meet schedule lines up, there really is no break between XC and indoor, or indoor and outdoor. XC Feds are in mid november, right as indoor is starting up. Then in the spring, the state meet is in March, sometimes even after outdoor practices have started.
As for over the summer, I am not sure exactly what NYSPHSAA's rules are, but almost every sport seems to have contact with coaches for "voluntary" workouts. The football team meets the coaches for lifting, XC runners usually meet their coaches for runs, soccer players attend camps that their coaches run, etc. As long as there is nothing mandatory or official, it seems to be OK.
There is no out of season coaching rule in NY State any more. Runners can race anywhere they want any time they want.
BUT-----
They CANNOT wear their school issued uniforms unless it is a sanctioned event. For example- in Footlocker/Nike XC, the National Track Meets, even any road 5K they may run, they cannot wear uniforms.
This extra contact time with the kids seems to be something that gets overlooked when people talk about the success of these NY programs (and likely other NE states with such indoor seasons).
Here in IL our state meet is the first weekend in November, then we can not officially meet with the kids until the middle of January. So a state like NY gets about 2.5-3 months extra work with their athletes. I think this a big reason for their overall success.
While many schools do expect their athletes to run over these months it is not structure with their HS coach meeting each day with them.
From a week or two before school starts until a week or so after it ends, coaches get contact straight through. Limited 'indirect' summer contact is allowed.
We get limited time in the summer as well. 6 weeks.
Most runners take those first few weeks after XC off anyway (even if they could have coaching contact), which diminishes the extra time that is truly available. Also, despite all the XC success, NY runners generally lag far behind in track compared to the rest of the country. If this extra time between seasons was so helpful, wouldn't it manifest in track more than XC?
FM coaches recieve pay beginning about two weeks before school (when all other fall varsity sports start) through the state meet. In reality, they are sacrificing a week of pay by choosing not to go Feds, but pick otherwise for the good of the kids. They also recieve pay for meets through states for indoor and outdoor, and are not compensated in any way for a summer program. However, there are not rules prohibiting coaching during any specific time of year, only that they can not meet for practice seven days in a row.