Football: Coaches scramble to decide when to have dead period

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The football season is over, but coaches are scrambling to begin the process of figuring out their calendar, because the summer ahead will be unlike any other.

The 2012 season begins with zero-week games on Aug. 24, a week earlier than in the past, and there can be scrimmages on Aug. 17. The Southern Section requires schools to take a three-week dead period, and many have used the beginning of August as their dead period. No longer.

It appears that summer football will end for many schools by July 14, requiring seven-on-seven passing tournaments to be changed or accelerated.

Edison’s passing tournament is tentatively scheduled for July 14, but it might have to be moved up to July 7, because lots of schools are planning to start their break period on July 14.

June will end up being the busiest seven-on-seven period. And schools could start following the example set by Westlake, which begins passing competitions on Saturdays in March. Or they could take their dead periods after school lets out in June.

‘It’s going to shorten the summer, no question,’ Chaminade Coach Ed Croson said. ‘This is going to be a tough summer.’

Some athletes won’t get any vacation, because school ends in early June, followed by summer school, then fall practice.

You can thank the wonderful people who voted to add a potential 16th game this season and create regional bowl games.

-- Eric Sondheimer