Welch Warned for Violating Practice Rules

Canyon High Principal Bill White said Tuesday that football Coach Harry Welch has been admonished for holding after-school practices in violation of Southern Section rules.

A photograph in the May 19th edition of the Newhall Signal shows a Canyon football player in shorts hitting a blocking dummy with several teammates and an assistant coach watching. The photograph was taken after school May 7 while a Canyon-Quartz Hill softball game was being played on an adjacent field.

Southern Section rules state that football teams cannot practice for longer than one class period a day before May 20 and that “sleds, blocking dummies and other ‘football’ equipment are expressly prohibited.”

“We made it clear that, yes, something happened, and it was a rule violation,” White said. “We also made it clear that if it happens again, we will come up with a harsher penalty.”

White said that he and Denny Thompson, Canyon’s athletic administrator, were made aware of the violations May 16 and took action May 17.

Official spring football practice began Monday, however, making after-school workouts permissible until the end of the school year.

Thompson reported the violations to the William S. Hart Unified High School District’s athletic council Tuesday.

District policy states that repeated violations of practice rules could result in a one-game suspension for a coach.

Welch, Canyon’s nine-year coach, denied any knowledge of a violation. “I work my kids so hard in the off-season,” he said. “We’re never done by 3 p.m. But I don’t think that the work we do is in violation of CIF rules.”