CIF Expected to Unseat Coaches, Lift Ban on Metal Baseball Cleats

The California Interscholastic Federation is expected to adopt a rule in October allowing the use of metal cleats in baseball and another that eliminates the so-called seat-belt rule forbiding basketball coaches from leaving their seats during games.

The National Federation of State High School Athletic Assns., of which the CIF is a member, has granted states the right to adopt those rules. California likely will endorse the changes, according to CIF officials. At its June meeting, the national federation also demanded that members must adopt a rule that imposes a limit on the number of innings high school baseball players may pitch during a set period of time.

Officials don’t expect to pass a pitching-limit regulation until January at the CIF Federated Council meeting. The council, which includes representatives from the 10 CIF sections, meets three times a year. Its next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 21 in Palm Springs.

The pitching-limit rule may be patterned after one used by the SacJoaquin Section last season. Under its regulations, a pitcher is limited to 10 innings during any three-day period and no more than 20 in a seven-day period. In addition, if a pitcher reaches the 10-inning limit during a three-day period, he cannot pitch the following two days.

“We’re going to take that rule as a starting point of discussion,” City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness said Thursday. “We’re going to ask our people for input and then take it to the state meeting.”

All 10 sections will follow a similar procedure, but whatever rule is adopted must go into effect by next baseball season and must be uniform throughout the state.

Harkness said the metal cleats regulation will meet little opposition, saying that coaches have insisted metal cleats are safer than plastic ever since metal was banned before the 1986 season. All-City pitcher Olonzo Woodfin of Sylmar missed two months last season after he broke his foot when his plastic cleat snapped during practice.

“I’m all for it. Every coach that I’ve spoken with wants metal cleats reinstated,” said Grant Coach Tom Lucero, who said he returned 10 of his team’s 30 plastic cleats last season because they cracked.

CIF officials are equally optimistic about the move to eliminate the two-year-old seat-belt rule in basketball. Under the new regulation, coaches would be allowed to roam a 6-foot box extending from the 28-foot line toward the base line.

“Undoubtedly, we will ask for that change,” CIF administrator Margaret Davis said.

The seat-belt rule was instituted to curb abuse hurled at officials by coaches, who in turn have argued that it prevented instruction and was absurdly constraining.

Former Kennedy girls’ Coach Craig Raub was slapped with a technical for walking to the end of the bench to check on an injured player.

“That’s how outrageous it was getting at times,” Raub said.

Cleveland boys’ Coach Bob Braswell’s response typified reaction among coaches.

“Hallelujah. I told my wife, ‘I’m going to die on that bench. I’m going to have a stroke. You might see me pass out one of these days,’ ” he said.

Although the variation still limits coaches to a small box, they say the rule will improve communication between coach and player. In addition, they claimed the rule gave officials too much control over the outcome of games.

“You get the younger officials, the guys with the least experience, and they’re wielding the technical foul like it’s some sort of power trip,” Saugus Coach John Clark said.

Jerry Cord, the Poly baseball coach, also officiates high school basketball games. He said the variation shouldn’t change the degree to which officials control games. Officials should only worry about a coach’s actions when they become abusive.

“There’s too much happening on the court that if you become conscious of what’s happening on the sideline, you’ll miss the game,” Cord said. “If the coaches are up talking, they’re talking with their players. If not, penalize them.”

For the past two years, coaches have felt penalized without ever receiving a technical foul. Many liken coaching basketball from a chair to teaching geometry from behind a desk.

“As a teacher, you don’t want to have a separation from the students. To get a good relationship with a student, you have to meet them half way,” North Hollywood Coach Steve Miller said.

And now that coaches can move around, they will be less likely to confront an official, Clark reasoned.

“All the coaches are going to be so happy to have their butts off the bench they’re not going to abuse the rule,” he said.

In fact, Braswell can think of only a few people who won’t like the rule change.

“My kids will probably be the ones disappointed,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘Great, not only do we have to hear him, now we’ve got to see him.’ ”