“The spirit of dead week is needed.” Said Men’s Baseball coach Steve Hall.  Dead week is a time where players and coaches can take a break from their sport or activity and relax. Dead week is required by all schools in the district and in many places around the US. Dead week is where a school sets a period of nine days where coaches cannot contact players or hold practice-involving MSHSAA sponsored activities. That means there is no coaching, observing, or contact between coach and players. There is no practice, no open facilities, and no weight training/conditioning.

“Dead week came about because with the amount of time spent with the coaches, players, and folks involved in activities, there was no times that family’s had for themselves.” Said athletic director Chad Evans.  Being an athlete can be very hard, having to go to practice five to seven times a week and also having to keep up in school. Athlete’s busy lives leave little time for family so they should really take advantage of this time and do something special or just relax with family.

“Its tough scheduling the dead week because all sports have a different schedule.”  Said Dr. Evans. Baseball, Football, Basketball and many other sports have many things going on in the summer so it’s hard to find a week where all schools in the district have nothing going on.

“We love seeing improvement and talking to our athletes.” Said Coach Hall. There are plenty of pros and cons to dead week but the good definitely outweighs the bad. Dead week helps athletes not get overworked and can have time to do what they want. It lets coaches spend very valuable time away from coaching and with family.

Dead Week is a very important time for athletes and coaches because it’s a time where they can spend time with family and relax. High school can be hard enough and add the stress of practice five to seven times a week that can take a toll on an athlete mentally and physically. Coaches dedicate numerous hours with players to try to get them better but sacrifice a lot of thier time. Coaches and athletes look forward to dead week because it’s a much needed break.