Starting practice at 5 pm one day a week in season

I was at a school where we did PD after school one day a week, but not for near that long, so for us it didn't really throw too much off. Our OC was a lay coach and used whatever extra time to run through additional offensive adjustments, but we were typically out by 3:45 or so at the latest (our school day ended at 3). Is coming in before school an option? Maybe bring them in for an hour session of Indy time and specials and then do team after your PD? I don't know, just giving ideas. What do other coaches think about this? I can't imagine anyone being terribly thrilled about that set-up.

Dang...that sucks. At my place if there is something like that you are excused if you are in season. That's for all sports. Matter of fact I attended my first meeting this school year after school yesterday...

We faced that 3 years ago but it wasn't for as long of a block of time. We had volunteer assistants at the practice and I was able to convince them that I should be there too. I'm the HC and AD. I also got permission for all HC's to be at practice.

We run an athletic bus that leaves at 6 PM. We also have a rule that kids need to out of the building by 7 for religious ed on Wednesdays. So our time frame was pretty set. Small rural schools can still get away with it.

It didn't go well for many reasons other than athletic conflicts, FFA, FBLA, Key Club, Skills USA, etc., all had conflicts as well. They changed it after 1 year to having a late school day start on Wednesdays and we all have to be here earlier. It works much better. Maybe you can lobby for that.

I just work morning lifting around it.

Do you have personal days in your contract? If so, take 2 hours personal time every Wednesday.

Public education!!!!!!!!!!

They're requiring 2 hours past your contract time every frikkin week?  I'd be surprised if that stuck.  Do you have an active teachers union where you are?  If so, they gotta be fighting this tooth and nail.  That seems quite excessive.

We have our PLCs every Monday morning for 45 minutes as the start of school is pushed back.  

Maybe you can cut manipulate your schedule to where Wednesday is the shortest practice of the year and go from 5-6:15 or so?  Or, bring in the kids on Saturday mornings or Sunday evenings to get a practice in and take Wednesdays off.  Do you have any non-teaching coaches that could so certain things with them while you and others were not there?

When I was in HS my team had to do this, for what I assume were similar reasons. The coaches told us it was a time to go study or get HW done (most of us just screwed around).

I coached at a school in Arizona where the district had heat regulations; often times we couldnt start practice until 4:30-ish. We told the kids they had three options: Study Hall, Weight Room, Leave Campus. We really stressed the 1st two, and it was a great way for those who didnt have a wt. lifting class to get their lifts in.

We have this set-up on Wednesdays as well, but it's an early dismissal for the students who don't have F's. They get out at 1:45 and practice starts at 3:30 due to teacher professional development. There is a school-wide study table for all students with F's on this day from 2:00-3:00, so some of our players stay for that even if they aren't flunking classes since they have practice anyway. We generally speaking don't have a problem getting the kids back that leave campus though. If you feel you might, perhaps make a mandatory study table for your players to attend on these days if you can get supervision.

Also, it's good to bring this up with administration now so a plan can be developed.  Some administrators are so out of touch with how athletics work that this may be an issue they haven't even considered yet.

We did this on Wednesdays mid season on about six. We brought the kids on the game field under the lights and cranked the music. No Indy or group, just team. A lot of parents and fans would come and it was always our best practice of the week. A lot of yelling hooping and hollering and just raising hell. It was a lot of fun but productive as well.

Rooster

Thank God for private sector jobs with flexible schedules.

We went to having a night practice every wed. this year. We told the kids that if they needed extra school help, dr. appointment or anything else this was the day to do it. Really helped with those problems. For what ever reason it turned out to always be our best practice of the week. Maybe it was being under the lights, who knows.