Southern Section Council Rejects Plan for Additional Football Scrimmage

Members of the Southern Section’s general council on Thursday defeated a proposal that would have allowed football teams an additional scrimmage beginning this fall.

Council members voted, 33-21, during their spring meeting in Buena Park to deny a proposal supported by 300 members of the Southern California Interscholastic Football Coaches Assn. that would have allowed teams to conduct a scrimmage after 10 days of practice, in addition to the 10 regularly scheduled games.

Football teams now are allowed the option of a scrimmage and nine games or 10 games with no scrimmage. Supporters contended that the extra scrimmage would allow coaches an opportunity to better evaluate players.

Council members who opposed the proposal cited additional budget costs for transportation.

In other action, council members:

--Approved an earlier start for the 1990-91 basketball season. The season will begin the Wednesday after Thanksgiving to give tournaments more scheduling flexibility.

Under current rules, the basketball season opens on Dec. 1. The traditional opening day falls on a Friday next season and on a Saturday in 1990, complicating tournament play.

--Defeated a proposal to restrict the number of innings a pitcher is allowed to complete each week. Council members questioned how the restrictions would be monitored.

The section’s baseball advisory committee recommended that pitchers be limited to 30 outs or three appearances within seven days.

--Defeated a proposal to allow a two-week conditioning period before the start of the baseball season. Supporters claimed the additional practice would enhance the conditioning of pitchers’ arms.

Council members tabled discussion on a proposal eliminating alumni games between students and either faculty members, celebrities or former players. Council members also voted to instruct representatives attending the State Executive Council meeting next week to approve separate sites for the state boys and girls basketball championships beginning in 1990 and reject a proposal to add two divisions in the State girls’ volleyball championships.

Council Notes

Tom Jacobson, principal at Corona del Mar, has become president of the council, following the resignation of Bruce Keuning because of professional obligations. . . . An appeal by Glenn Voss, Olympic League representative, to deny Santa Margarita’s football team membership in the league for the 1989 season was denied recently by the section’s Executive Committee. . . . Chris Thomas, son of section Commissioner Stan Thomas, has been hired to replace Larry Zucker as the Southern Section’s director of marketing and promotions. Thomas is a graduate of Cal State Fullerton. Zucker resigned to become associate athletic director at Cal State Bakersfield. . . . Tom Noel, former Magnolia athletic director and Darrell Roundy, Orange County officials’ coordinator were recipients of lifetime passes for service to the section.