CIAC Glory Days
The CIAC Glory Days podcast immerses listeners into the world of high school athletics. Explore the purpose and impact of interscholastic athletics on student-athletes as administrators, coaches, players, officials, parents, and State Athletic Association staff take listeners on a journey from tryouts to championships.
CIAC Glory Days
Changing the Game: The Process Behind CIAC Bylaw Changes
Ever wondered how rules and bylaws in high school sports are changed? Join us on a fascinating journey as we unravel the process, focusing on a proposal to change the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) out-of-season coaching bylaw. We have the privilege of hosting Fred Balsamo, the Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors' Executive Director, and Amanda Forcucci, an educator and head girl's basketball coach at Hamden High School, to share their insights on this subject.
We will examine a three-part proposal primarily aimed at allowing contact between school coaches and their athletes over the summer on a restrictive basis. Fred and Amanda take us through the other parts of the proposal that are designed to clarify the club and camp rules, making it a level playing field and giving students the chance to attend camps. We'll look at how these changes could affect school districts' costs and implementation and, importantly, the potential benefits to the students. The discussion will also delve into the impact of year-round conditioning and how this rule change could facilitate quicker team identity and dynamic development.
As we wrap up, we'll dig into the vetting process for change proposals, spotlighting how these are filtered through CIAC, sent out for votes, and finally approved by schools. We'll also explore the purpose and value of high school sports, considering their role in fostering teamwork, promoting physical health, and developing social and emotional skills. This episode will underline the importance of sports in creating a sense of school pride and helping students develop life-long skills. Tune in for this riveting discussion!
Welcome to CIC's Glory Days Podcast. This podcast gives an in-depth look into the inner workings of the Connecticut Inter Scholastic Athletic Conference and the purpose behind high school sports. Through interviews with coaches, players, administrators and other guests, the CIC immerses you into the glory days of high school sports. So now it's time to enjoy the next episode of the Glory Days Podcast.
Glenn Lungarini:Hello, I'm Glenn Langarini, the Executive Director of the Connecticut Inter Scholastic Athletic Conference, otherwise known as the CIC, and co-host of the Glory Days Podcast.
Jada:And I'm Jada Maribel, a former CIC athlete and co-host of the CIC Glory Days Podcast. Today, glenn and I are joined by Fred Balsama, the Executive Director of the Connecticut Association of Athletic Directors, a Demand of Fercucci, an educator and head girls basketball coach at Hamden High School and an officer of the Connecticut High School Coaches Association. On today's episode we will explore CIC's process to change bylaws, rules and regulations. To do this, we'll take a backward design approach by first reviewing a current proposal to change the CIC out of season coaching bylaw. Then we'll discuss the vetting process for change proposals and finish with an overview of who can propose changes to the CIC and process of submitting a proposal.
Glenn Lungarini:Thank you, Fred and Amanda, thank you for joining us today. So in the next week we're going to be sending out to principals a vote to the joint proposal that was sent to the CIC from the CAD and the CHSCA. So let's start just talking about that proposal a little bit. Fred, let's start with you. Can you tell us what is the proposal that is sent regarding the out of season coaching?
Fred Balsamo:Sure Glenn. The proposal has three components. The most important part is something that would be a way to allow contact between school coaches and their athletes over the summer on a very restrictive basis. This has been forbidden in the past, but we believe this proposal is very restrictive in that regard. It basically says a coach can coach their athletes for two hours per day, for no more than two days per week. It doesn't start until, after all, the spring, sports and school is pretty much done and it ends before the fall season begins.
Jada:Great. So, amanda, what is the rationale for this proposal? Why do coaches think this would be a good change for athletes?
Amanda Forcucci:Yeah, coaches are really excited for this. We get an opportunity to be with our players in a period of time where there's no school and we're seeing a greater gap, if you will, between players who are able to join those summer leagues or clinics and camps, au programs, and those who can't. So the coaching staff among the coaches, association CAD and Fred recognized it as well and other athletic directors, hey, we have to do something about this. So that's when we came together and we said, hey, well, let's think about how we can do this the right way and what would be fair to all kids. And I think that's again, that's what we're here for is for our kids. So we think this is going to be the best way to close that gap.
Glenn Lungarini:So when you guys were making this proposal and you worked together on this, it wasn't just about what you're proposing to offer to kids.
Jada:There are actually multiple proposals that are out to the principals right now.
Glenn Lungarini:So the first, as you said, Fred, is to allow access in the summer in a restricted capacity, two hours per day, twice per week. But there are additional changes that this proposal is seeking as well. I think in what is said to the principals is proposal two and proposal three. Tell us about this.
Fred Balsamo:Well, it's good to set that up to piggyback with what Amanda said. So the whole purpose and I would be remiss without mentioning Joe Cansonella, the former executive director this was his passion and part of the reason for us coming together was the obvious inequities that were happening between those communities that had resources and those communities that did not. Proposals two and three take the CIC existing rule and further clarify it so that it's much more easier to enforce. One of the rules is the club rule and if you're using the club rule right now, I would hazard a guess 90% of the people are misapplying it. They don't understand that club rule. That is for a family, that is a family membership in like a country club. This was an accepted change to the CIA, to the CIA season rule, many, many years ago, because we had an individual coaching or working at a country club and it was his livelihood and kids were coming there. So they allow this. But how many families and how many kids in our state are allowed to have the resources to join a country club? So we're suggesting that that part of the rule be eliminated. It's it's certainly not equitable. Those lower Dirk schools and those inner city kids are not belonging to a country club, so they're not afforded that change.
Fred Balsamo:The other change is another rule, that is that currently exists, that is being misapplied or being abused, and that's the camp rule. When the camp rule was originated it was intended for kids going to a college campus working with college coaches, and very often the high school coach would attend and work with a selected group, but not just their team. That's morphed into and been abused so that high school coaches are taking their kids to camps and working with them exclusively. We have a safeguard in there, the way the rule is written, that you can't do that if you're exceeding more than 10% of the enrollment of the camp. But who's checking that? Who's counting the number of kids in a camp?
Fred Balsamo:So our suggestion, our proposal, is to eliminate that coach-student relationship. We want kids to be able to go to camps, we want coaches to go and work at those camps, but what we're saying is, while you're at that camp you cannot coach your kids. That's the third part of that. It equalizes the playing field and we're giving them the opportunity to run their own camp twice a week, two hours a day. So why do you need to do both? And so we're hoping all three parts of this proposal goes through. We think it'll be a much easier rule to manage in the summer and the coaches will be getting what they're seeking the opportunity to have access to their kids.
Fred Balsamo:So Amanda let's talk a little bit more about equity, which Fred had just mentioned.
Jada:A lot of coaches right now believe that the current rules in place favor the more affluent districts with families who could pay for more elite summer camps and training programs. But yet those families in those towns who don't have those opportunities, those kids don't get the same out of season training.
Amanda Forcucci:Yeah, 100% what you said. So all of us are currently living it and have been living it for some time. What you see is everyone it's now come to who trains you, and you have these social circles where, if you don't have a trainer, then you're like the hot one out, my dad or my brother. So right, you are the odd one out and you're almost like ostracized from the social group that you're a part of, whether it's basketball, football, whatever it is, everyone has a trainer, or it's the thing to do. Now.
Amanda Forcucci:That being said, not all trainers are created equal either. So those that don't have the money to go to, the one that knows what they're doing, so to speak, or that has been trained appropriately and safely. You know we are putting kids through rigorous workouts. We want to make sure that they're safe. Number one it's, you know, yes, sport related, but also how about the secondary muscle groups that help things and whatnot? So sometimes I see kids wanting so desperately to belong and to be a part of and to keep up with that somebody. Oh, yeah, no, I could do that and I could do it on the cheap and I'll work with you, but it's not a complete with the whole child in mind in terms of secondary muscle group, primary muscle groups, sport specific and non-sports specific. So I think having the opportunity as certified individuals right so going through professional development yearly.
Amanda Forcucci:You know, I mean, fred, you're sitting right here, as you know, he created an entire line of professional development opportunities that we get yearly in addition to being CPR, first aid, trained up and up you know, why wouldn't you want somebody with that expertise, that, and also let's talk about vetted by the school system.
Amanda Forcucci:You get hired, you go through an interview process, you know people look at you, you have eyes on you and I think all those things put together and we always have safety in mind first so to have the opportunity to have time with our kids with all that in mind, I think is a much better and much controlled way to help kids get to where they need to be All kids.
Glenn Lungarini:So, Fred, one of the concerns that we've heard from school administrators, principals and superintendents is we look at the out of season roles, the potential cost that this may have. Within the joint proposal that was sent in. What are the options that are available? If there is a cost that may be associated with this. And do districts have to do this? Are there options that won't cost them?
Fred Balsamo:anything. Well, you know and not because I was part of this proposal, but I've been a part of the out of season rule since its inception and I can tell you that this, of all the things I've ever read, or we've rewritten or whatever, this is probably the best product. You know, when Joe and I started brainstorming and bringing in Amanda and some of our other athletic directors, the beauty of this proposal while it gives a very limited, restricted access to athletes, it offers a plethora of ways to implement it. Schools can decide they don't want to have any part of it, totally divorce themselves of the summer activity and just say to coaches you want to go coach in a summer basketball league. If there are summer basketball leagues now that operate two days a week, where coaches go and sit and watch the games they can't coach, well, now they'd be able to coach. Totally divorce of the school district. They have the leagues, have their own insurance.
Fred Balsamo:You could take that avenue. You could take the avenue of we want to have coaches involved and we want to make them do it, and or we want our own coaches to do it and we're going to open our facilities. You can take that route. You could take any direction you want to make to make this happen. The most important thing is this is about the kids and, again, the equity factor. We believe those lower door kids, those inner city kids, when they say goodbye to their coach in June and school goes out, they may not see another educator until September. This is going to afford them that opportunity to be with a coach over the summer. We believe those programs will have grant money and if they wanted to use it, they can use it.
Fred Balsamo:And the other thing this does right now it's very restricted. You can't use school funds in the summer. You can't even use booster club funds if the booster club is tied to the school. So the change in the way this is written that would allow loosen up funds, fundraising funds and whatnot in addition to school funds. We could talk hours about how different it's. Probably, if it goes through, it's going to get implemented many different ways. It's pretty much not one shoe fits everybody. It's going to be. Let me do it the way it best fits my school and this is the way we want to do it. All it comes down to is no more than two hours a day, no more than two days a week, and do it the way you have to do it.
Glenn Lungarini:To clarify that two hours a day and two days a week, that is for the time you're spending with the team doing skill development or participating in games. It doesn't change that coaches can work out with their kids in the weight room calisthenics, they can do that more than two days a week.
Fred Balsamo:The rule, those parts of the rule that already exist are going to remain. So conditioning year round is allowable. It's not sport specific, it's weight training, lifting, running, cardio type workouts, so they can do that. So, yes, a program can work out three days a week but they can get involved in American Legion Baseball. Right now a coach cannot coach, but if it's two days a week now the coach can coach as the basketball program. There's different opportunities out there, but you're correct in the conditioning component will continue In addition to we want the kids to stay healthy and safe and conditioning is a part of that and being able to do that year round is not going to change.
Jada:Right, so this next question is for the both of you, but I'll start off with the Q&A. Can you summarize for us what the joint CAD and CHSCH proposed change is for out of season coaching and what this means for coaches and kids and how it would affect them?
Amanda Forcucci:Yeah, well, I think Fred mentioned so the change is so right now we can be in attendance to watch our kids, say at a camp. So for me, I coach basketball and my kids are involved in a fall league right now, so I can go on a Saturday morning to the school. I can sit in the stands. Sometimes I bring my kids and we cheer yeah, we watch them to be supportive but I can't coach them. I can't sit on the bench and coach them. I can't take them, let's say, the day before, and go through an offensive scheme or this is what we're going to do on defense. I can't take them for skill work right now and work on making shots or whatever.
Amanda Forcucci:So right now, the way, the rule, you can't do that. So what the change would be is might give me an opportunity. If I'm now, I can maybe sit on the bench for that game that runs about an hour and I can be there to help coach them, encourage them directly basketball language and maybe call timeouts and practice maybe drawing up a play that we haven't practiced. We have that like time and it would afford me to take them maybe the day before or two days before to prep for that fall league game in a style where I would normally maybe coach during the year, so they can get a chance to get to know me. So every time, every year, group dynamics change and that would be awesome.
Amanda Forcucci:I'm thinking that would be a really awesome way for coaches to get with their kids, that new group, to see what their identity is, how they're going to be, and as a coach you can kind of see what implement or what changes you have to make. What personalities are you dealing with, how do you, how is your team coming together, and you can try to like, start to try to mold that you know a little bit, and maybe that also comes into the play with your conditioning. What are we lacking? Do I need to work on leadership? Do I have to work on chemistry? What is that? There's also a lot of intangibles, too. That gives you a chance to see what's unfolding, that you can kind of work into the preseason.
Jada:Definitely, because every year it's so different with players, yep Premanality, yep strengths and weaknesses.
Amanda Forcucci:Even if you lose one kid, sometimes it can change a whole group dynamic, yeah, so Fred this change.
Jada:What does it mean for athletic administrators?
Fred Balsamo:And just to clarify, amanda's example was in the fall, but this proposal is only for the summer, so we're not proposing anything beyond the summer. We don't want anybody misinterpreting that. Thank you, you know. Again, athletic directors were involved in the development of this and, depending on the implementation plan and the direction they want to go, they could be as involved as they want to be. There are many athletic directors About 48% of our athletic directors are not full-time employees that work over the summer.
Fred Balsamo:Those people can simply decide to say coaches, here's the rule you can coach two days a week for two hours a day. Go ahead and do it. Just we're not doing it here, I'm not working, we're not running it through the high school facilities, we're not using our athletic trainers. But there's many athletic directors that are administrators and they may want to have that involvement. So there was input from athletic administrators in the development of this proposal. Again, their personality I know. When I was an athletic director I would want to be actively involved. So it may put a little bit more burden on some people, but that's going to be of their choosing.
Glenn Lungarini:So, let's shift gears now a little bit and just talk about the change process. So, contrary to popular belief, the CIAC does not propose changes. As executive director, I do not vote on any committee. I don't have the authority to propose a change. Nor does any of our CIAC staff Changes come to us by either individual member principals who are voting members of the CIAC legislative body, through CAD, through the Coaches Association, through member school leagues or through a sport committee. So this proposal came to us through CAD and the Coaches Association jointly. Share with us what the process is for CAD and then Amanda Yu for the Coaches Association. When a topic comes up for a proposal, what is the process you use to develop a proposal to send to CIAC?
Fred Balsamo:Well, we, you know we take great pride in the way our board is formed. Our board of directors is made up of members from each league. We have a tremendous, diverse population of people that we listen to, that bring in constant information from all over the state. In addition to that, we have district representatives that cover a bigger, broader area of the state. So when things are brought to my attention, you know what we do is we run them through our boards, we push them back out to our leagues for an initial you know check of you know, is there interest in going through this or whatever? Sometimes, you know we'll get back and it'll be well.
Fred Balsamo:Only some people like it, some don't and it may die on the vine Sometimes. If it gains overwhelming support, then we move to the next level, which is submitted to the CIAC. But we're a we're a ground, you know, grassroots, ground level organization where we listen to our membership. I serve at the pleasure of the membership and that's how things are filtered up through us. And then onto the CIAC. With this proposal, the Coaches Association was working on a out of season proposal as we were recognizing some change needed, you know, because of our association over the years of being so close to one another, we decided to merge the two proposals and jointly move this thing forward, knowing if we did that it would have greater chance of success.
Glenn Lungarini:A lot of differences of opinion among coaches. So how does the Coaches Association handle all the requests that you have to form?
Amanda Forcucci:Yeah, it's similar to what Fred said. So we I sit on the executive board and we can get proposals from. We have sport committees that have chairs and sometimes at our larger meetings, a chair will come forward with a proposal from their, their, their, their sport, I think. You know. I remember golf needed to change a season to, from you know, add one from spring to fall because of the lack of of greens available and stuff like that. So that's something like oh, that's great to know, thank you. And so, similar process.
Amanda Forcucci:We send it out, you know, that proposal, to the coaches. Hey, let's get a vote on this, does everyone agree? And then we comes back and we talk about it at the executive board. Okay, it looks good. And then we, we again, we pass it on. It gets vetted by cat, it gets vetted by the board of control and CIC and so forth.
Amanda Forcucci:So or sometimes you get a league, sometimes you get the FCAC or the SEC or SWC, or shortly you get you get a league saying, hey, we have this idea and it might come through us, you know, wanting the coaches association to vet it. Send it out to the coaches and hey, what you know, do other people think this way as well, and then again executive board takes a look at it and then we again we pass it on. So there's a there's, there is a huge vetting process as well, and same with what Fred said. You know, we're, we're, we're like on the ground level as well. So you know we have a front seat with with all coaches through all the sports, and there's a ton of ideas that come up and and, like Fred also said, sometimes they do die. You send it out as a vote and the majority doesn't agree or doesn't think that way, so we won't send it ahead. Or hey, this part right here is missing something. Can you fix that and send it back out, or whatever. So kind of very similar.
Jada:So now you have seen in your career the CISC process from a few different lenses as an educator, coach, athletic director, now as the executive director of CAD. Can you describe your understanding of the CISC process on receiving, considering, vetting and recommending a proposed change?
Fred Balsamo:Well, you know, as we started to talk about this proposal, you know and over my career I've been involved and CAD has been involved in a lot of changes Once a proposal is developed at your level, at the CAD level or the coaches level, and it gets passed to the CISC, almost all the time it gets put into a committee. There's either a standing committee, a sport committee, or we create a committee With this one. There was an odyssey's and committee years ago and it was resurrected, so it was put to the committee. The committee usually has representation from principals in this case superintendents, athletic directors and coaches. And we do our homework. And you know, given the charge, this is the proposal coming where it's coming from. If it's coming from CAD, it's coming from coaches. If it's coming from a league, if it's coming from a principal, it, then that's taken off the plate. Now it becomes a CISC committee charge to vet it, look at it and go and now do what it has to do.
Fred Balsamo:The committee will then pass it through several hurdles. If it has to do with health and safety, it would have to go to sports med. It would go to principals. It would go back out to superintendents. It will go back to the athletic directors. So even if, in this case, even though CAD and the coaches association made the proposal, it came back to us to vet as individual schools, then there'll be a vote soon, as Glenn said, of the principal and the school. So you know, people that were not in favor of it have an opportunity to voice concerns. People who were in favor have an opportunity to voice their concerns and place their vote. So it's a process. It sounds cumbersome, it does slow things down because when there's change that's going to affect kids, it does. It's not always, unless it's health and safety. There's no need to move that quickly. So you know the process works. It's worked for years.
Fred Balsamo:It educates our membership and it gives them all a voice. They may be a descending voice, but they have a voice.
Jada:Exactly Okay. So I mean you can look at any high school athletic association across the country. If you don't fully understand how they work, you may not know that there are checks and balances, like Fred was just mentioning. So how does the high school coaches association work as a check and balance or governing oversight as CIC?
Amanda Forcucci:Yeah, I think it well one. We work closely together. Fred has said it multiple times and you know so having even like an office here, being able to just either pick up the phone or go next door and say you know, hey, I heard this, let's work together. I mean the evidence in the oddest season proposal right there, we both had like-minded ideas and we were able to sit together and come together and put together a very good, well-written proposal. That, I think, makes a lot of sense, and I know Fred does too. So I think it gives us a voice. It's like a symbiotic relationship working together.
Amanda Forcucci:If there's something that with the times that maybe worked 20 years ago, that may not work now, we have a means to say, hey, this isn't working and oh, okay. And then we kind of come together and we share those ideas. And you know, we you know the CIC kind of has this, maybe this 30,000 foot view on everything. And we, you know we're like Fred said, we're here, we're on the ground. So if we see anything, it's there's always an avenue to speak up and say something and everyone listens.
Amanda Forcucci:And, like Fred said, there's different committees for different things, depending on what it is Gives us a chance to voice those concerns and whatever, and read those proposals and then take it forth one step at a time. And, like Fred said, sometimes it's not a good one and it gets shot down, and that's okay too. And if it is slow, that's okay. We don't need to make, you know, these quick decisions that might hurt kids. We don't want to do that. So everything is done in a professional and guided way, with the end result of always coming out at the other end that we help kids in some way.
Glenn Lungarini:Okay, lastly for you guys, the CIC Glory Days podcast explores the question what is the purpose of high school sports? So, amanda, teacher educator, head coach, mom you tell us in your view, what is the purpose of high school sports?
Amanda Forcucci:I think it is a piece of that whisk model, that whole child. It helps in the development of a kid, it helps scratch that itch, the ones that are athletically inclined, it's available to them. And there's a ton of avenues that the CIC offers in terms of educational based sports. And we're in the buildings. It's after school, it doesn't. You know, school comes first. It's education based athletics.
Amanda Forcucci:I was just telling my kids the other day we had a sign up meeting. I said you know, you go to school and you get to play a sport. You don't go to play a sport and get to go to school. It's the opposite. So you know, we have study halls, we have guided, weekly reports that teachers have to sign off on. There's rules about. You know the F rule. You're getting Ds and Fs. Well, okay, well, you're not gonna be playing sports. That's where here as students first, and then you get to do this cool thing too with your classmates after. So, yeah, so that's how I see it. And as a mom, the same way and like your homework comes first and then you can go do something.
Glenn Lungarini:Fred, from your perspective, what is the purpose of high school sports?
Fred Balsamo:Amanda said it best it's really to provide an educationally based program to kids, considering that we have standards and we require academic standards. We require behavioral standards as compared to non-educational sports, where you can be a talented athlete and have all Fs and you can play on a non-school program. That's not what we're about. We're about the overall welfare and betterment of a child and make sure that they're well-rounded and the product that gets put out into society from our coaching programs and our athletic programs are gonna contribute to society in a positive way, and it's all about an educationally based program. And the CISC exists to ensure that and hopefully provide a level playing field for all the schools out there so that winning doesn't become the most important thing. Everybody strives to win and it is important, but we don't lose sight of the fact that it's all about the kids, right?
Glenn Lungarini:Fred, Amanda, thank you so much for being part of our podcast today and speaking to our audience. The CISC Glorious Day podcast seeks to answer that question what is the purpose of high school sports? On behalf of my co-host, Jada Maribel, I'm Glenn Lungarini. Thank you for joining us on this episode. We'll see you next time.