Most of the state’s 342 high school football teams will begin holding pre-season practices next week, although a few teams that play their first game on August 23 are getting started this week. All of the teams will need to follow new guidelines put in place by the Iowa High School Athletic Association. I-H-S-A-A Assistant Executive Director Todd Tharp says the biggest change may be the order of no more than one practice per day.

“I think it has been a fairly common thing for some of veteran coaches to hold a morning practice and then come back in the evening for another practice,” Tharp says. “We have also seen a lot of coaches going to one practice per day because they have kids from rural areas and it’s difficult to get those kids in and out from where they live.” That one practice must not exceed three hours in length. Tharp says that mandate applies only to “physical activity,” so a practice could go longer.

“They could take players (inside) to educate them and maybe watch a bit of game film…they might actually be there for three-and-a-half hours, but the key is three hours of physical activity,” Tharp says. Most of the changes to the pre-season rules in Iowa are based on safety concerns and follow national guidelines on the issue. Tharp says “full contact” with pads was previously allowed on day four or the pre-season, but the new rule allows full contact on day six.

“The national research is showing…we weren’t giving the kids enough time,” Tharp says. “So, the first couple days they can go in helmets. On days three, four, and five, they can wear helmets and shoulder pads.” For the first time this year, teams are allowed to hold a scrimmage with another school after 10 days of practice and prior to their first game.

“It’s going to be a coach’s discretion. Some might not want to do that,” Tharp says. “Others might want to take that opportunity to scrimmage against (a team) that they’re obviously not going to see during the regular season.” Many football coaches, particularly in some of Iowa’s smaller schools, have been pushing for such a scrimmage game for years — to take the place of an intrasquad game.

“A lot of our small schools might only have 18 kids out for high school football, grades 9-12. Obviously, if you don’t have 22, it’s tough to scrimmage,” Tharp says. “Also, you might have an intrasquad scrimmage with the varsity against the JV squad…well,
juniors and seniors going against freshman…you might not get a whole lot out of that scrimmage.” Another change involves post-season play. The UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls will only be used for the semifinal and championship games.

Tharp says that will eliminate 8:45 p.m. start times on a weekday for a playoff game, which had some players getting home well after midnight. The Cedar Falls Tigers, however, will continue to play their home games in the UNI-Dome.

(Radio Iowa)

The University of Iowa wrestling schedule for next season has been released. It includes seven home dates and a return to one of the sport’s premiere events. Iowa will open the 2013-14 season on the weekend of November 15 at a tournament “yet to be determined.” Then, the Hawkeyes will host the Iowa City Duals on Friday, November 22. The other teams will be Baker University, Cornell College, and Iowa Central. The home schedule also includes dual meets against non-conference foes Buffalo and Oklahoma State, and Big Ten opponents Michigan State, Indiana, Minnesota, and Michigan.

The Hawkeyes will visit Evanston, Illinois on December 29-30 for the Midlands Championships. Iowa did not compete in the Midlands last year. Iowa wrestles Iowa State in Ames on December 1. The Big Ten Championships will take place March 8-9 in Madison, Wisconsin, while Oklahoma City hosts the NCAA Championships March 20-22.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa State Athletic Department says the football team will wear throwback uniforms during the game with Iowa on Sept. 14th in Ames. Marketing director, Mary Pink, says the uniforms will go all the way back to the 1920’s. “They’ll look like the uniforms from the Jack Trice era…they will be cardinal jerseys with five stripes and a white number. And then they will have gold pants and then striped cardinal and gold socks to complete the uniform,” Pink says. They uniforms will be topped off with the cardinal helmets and just numbers on the side instead of the current I-S-U logo.

Trice was the first African-American player in Cyclone history, and the football stadium is named in his honor. He played in two games at Iowa State and died from injuries suffered in a game at Minnesota during the 1923 season. Pink says they researched the equipment Trice wore 90 years ago. “We had to look at pictures of what were worn during that era and look at trying to match them as closely as we could. We went through many different designs to accurately depict what the jerseys and the pants would have looked like,” Pink explains. Fans will be able to bid in an online auction at Cyclones.com to buy the uniforms. The first round of bidding starts this Friday, August ninth.

She says the auction will feature over 100 uniforms and each period Friday to Friday they will give fans a chance to bid on the uniforms. The starting bid for the uniforms is 250-dollars, which is the base cost of the uniform. Pink says the auction lets fans have a great piece of memorabilia. “These are the actual game-worn jerseys and pants,” Pink says. The only other time that Iowa State players wore a throwback uniforms was in 2007 against Iowa.  Those uniforms honored the 1977 Cyclone team and commemorated the 30-year anniversary of the school’s Peach Bowl appearance.

The Cyclones defeated Iowa, 15-13 in that game. The Cyclones will hold their annual media day on August 11th, and they open the season August 31st against Northern Iowa.

(Radio Iowa)