High school spring football?

What states out there do high school spring football? What kind of coverage does it get in your paper?

 

Alabama has it. My former paper did very little with it.

 

South Carolina has it. We usually do some kind of capsules for each team with practice dates, number of kids out, etc., and something like "Three Burning Questions" the team hopes to address during spring practice. But we don't cover that many schools, so we can afford to devote that kind of space. If you have 50-60 schools or more, like many papers, you wouldn't be able to do that.

 

I've heard that Texas, Florida and Oklahoma have it too. Any others?

 

yeah, Texas has spring ball for the higher classes, though coaches can opt out of spring days if they want to start practicing earlier in the fall. and you don't (I hope) need to ask what kind of coverage is given Texas high school football, regardless of when it's happening.

 

I'm sure those papers that still employ high school sportswriters tend to give it some love.

 

course, you get a spring football warm-up with the summer 7-on-7.

 

We love it here! Cain't git enough of it! Wags the dog! Them other sports is just filler between football, recruiting, spring football, 7-on-7 camps and flu season.
Yew think we'd suspend football season for sum bitty ol' flu?

 

Yeah, there is spring football in Florida, usually we'll cover all of the local scrimmages that cap it off.

 

Mississippi has it, although some of the smaller schools will skip it if their baseball teams are doing well (a lot of kids play both sports, and the baseball playoffs finish up a week or two before graduation). Schools do different things for a spring game. Some will have a scrimmage with another school or a few of them will get together for a jamboree. Others will just have an intrasquad scrimmage.
We might shoot a picture the first day of practice, then cover the spring game if it's in town. The story will be a wrapup of sorts more than a gamer -- who did well, did the coaches try anything new, what are the question marks heading into the season. That sort of thing.

 

Texas only allows it for Class 4A and 5A schools. They get (I think) 10 practice sessions over a 3-week window. Those teams that conduct spring practices are required to start two-a-days a week later in August. No interschool activity allowed in the spring.

One of our teams is not doing spring football this year because both of their QBs are in baseball, which is in the playoffs. Of course, thanks to the UIL, all that is now on hold.

 

Tennessee has it. I don't remember any coverage.