ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - In two recent interviews where I spoke to local junior college athletes who this fall will be taking their talents to four-year universities, the most difficult question I asked was not about their athletic careers. 

The question they spent the most time thinking about was, “What do you like to do in your free time?” 

When you dedicate so much time to be able to thrive within your sport, you spend all your time practicing or playing even during summer break. 

On June 25, the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section tweeted out a reminder in regard to the No Contact Dead Period which spans from July 1 to July 14. 

In January of this year, the section passed this dead period where the rules and guidelines say that there are no practices, no team building, no weightlifting, no conditioning, no meetings or no fundraisers. 

The section says that no member of a school’s athletic department is to make contact with any student-athlete. 

They say this was passed by an overwhelming majority as this allows athletes, coaches and parents to take a break from sports to plan a family vacation, spend time with friends and to rest and recover. 

Personally, If I were forced to take time off from sports when I was in high school, well that would be taking time away from seeing my friends because I can’t go to practice. Yes, I’d see them in a non-athletic setting, but our main hangout would be the field. 

The biggest one of all, I never took a “family vacation” because the only reason I traveled was due to summer tournaments. My most memorable trip in my life was to San Juan, Puerto Rico and the only reason this happened was due to sports. 

When you dedicate so much time to your sport, taking time off for vacations or hanging out with your friends outside of games or practices are non-existent. 

No fundraisers is a part of this No Contact Dead Period and how many firework stands have you seen lately that are to fundraise for your local high school sports programs? 

“If my guys show up with their parents to spin a fireworks sign and we get sanctioned…,” tweeted an unhappy Monterey Trail Mustangs basketball head coach Robert Fields.

Cities that have parades which include participation from high school teams with players and coaches on floats are now prohibited, as pointed out by @cameraguymark on X. 

Not only did coaches express their opinions but the X account for the Sac-Joaquin MaxPreps also expressed their opinion on how this period is nearly impossible.

“This seems nearly impossible. For example, thousands of softball teams, including many from our section, are heading to Colorado on July 1. HS coaches are also club coaches. How can they stop that when this means so much for recruiting?” 

Summer is filled with tournaments that are crucial for recruiting. A tournament from July 1 to July 14 could be the make or break for a student-athlete to be recruited to play at the collegiate level. 

“I foresee a lot of unnecessary and unfortunate sanctions coming down in the 24-25 season. Imagine a baseball or softball team getting penalized in the playoffs next May because a player participated in a key travel tourney in July that could help shape their future,” Nick Pecoraro of Premier Preps tweeted.  

These are sanctions waiting to accumulate throughout the section, as so many high school coaches also coach club teams, with their high school athletes also playing club with them.

What sanctions will the section give? Suspend players and coaches for a certain amount of games? Suspend them for the season? Suspend a whole team from participating? 

Quite frankly, it seems no matter what you do, you can get in trouble for this No Contact Period. 

With so many parents being coaches, it seems like this rule will force certain student-athletes to move out of their home for two weeks with the fear of being sanctioned this upcoming season. 

In high school, I remember there being a dead period in December, too, where people around us said to keep practicing and lifting as long as you don’t wear school gear and to act dumb if anyone asked us where our coach was.

You cannot stop athletes from participating in their sport. People will ignore this and get away with it or someone will try to be careful during this period and be sanctioned. Regardless, it’s not fair. 

Those who love their sports are not being held against their will to practice. 

At the end of the day, these are kids who are playing a kids’ game so let the kids play.