CHAPEL HILL– There will be no change in the individual football participation rule for the 2005

North Carolina High School Athletic Association season.

A possible rule change had been approved by the NCHSAA Board of Directors in May, pending

approval by the Sports Medicine Committee which works with the Association. But that committee, which

includes physicians and certified athletic trainers, did not approve the change.

The proposed rule was for an experiment of one year. It would have allowed a ninth or 10th grade

player who is not a starter or regular player on the varsity to participate in two games a week, to allow

those players who have to be used as back-ups in the varsity situation to be able to have junior varsity playing

experience. Varsity kickers could have been position players on jayvee team but not kick in the junior varsity

game. If there had been a postponement until following week, the player would have been limited to the junior

varsity game and one other game that week.

Que Tucker, NCHSAA deputy executive director, explained that the Sports Medicine Committee

had a number of concerns about the rule, including monitoring of the rule, safety of players especially in playing what would normally be back-to-back days, no restriction on how much a player could play in either game, and several other items.