Water Polo Manual Regular Season

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Regular Season

Practice Regulations

Practice Regulations – During the school year

In-Season Practice Regulations - When School is in Session – Individual & Team Sports

• Eight-hour practice rule:  School districts shall adopt policies limiting extracurricular activities from the beginning of the school week through the end of the school week (excluding holidays) by limiting practice outside the school day to a maximum of eight hours per school week per activity. 
• The in-school athletic period does not count towards the allotted 8 hours.

Off-Season Practice Regulations - When School is in Session -Team Sports

• Athletic Period – shall not exceed 60 minutes a day (300 minutes a week in a block schedule).
• Sport specific skill instruction should happen during the athletic period as there is no time, outside the school day, allowed for skill specific instruction during the off-season.
• Sessions for strength & conditioning instruction may be conducted by school coaches for students in grades 7-12 from that coaches attendance zone for sports in their off-season starting the first day of school. A strength and conditioning session shall be no more than one hour per day outside the school day, Monday through Friday, and a student shall attend no more than one session of supervised instruction per day.

Constitution and Contest Rules:  Section 5:  Definitions

• Calendar week means 12:01 a.m. on Sunday through midnight on Saturday. 
• School week means the week beginning at 12:01 a.m. on the first instructional day of a calendar week and ends at the close of instruction on the last instructional day of the calendar week, excluding holidays.

Practice Regulations - Outside the School Year

Preseason practice regulations for sports that begin practice prior to the school year are as follows.

• The maximum length of any single practice session is three hours.
• Student-athletes shall not engage in more than five hours of practice activities on those days during which more than one practice is conducted.
• Schools shall not schedule more than one practice on consecutive days and student-athletes shall not participate in multiple practices on consecutive days. Exception: Volleyball.
• On days when more than one practice is conducted, there shall be, at a minimum, two hours of rest/recovery time between the end of one practice and the beginning of the next practice.
• What counts towards practice time? Actual on-court practice, sport specific skill instruction, mandatory conditioning, water breaks and rest breaks.
• What doesn’t count? Meetings, weight training*, film study, injury treatment and voluntary conditioning. *Cannot be done during the two-hour rest between the two practices.

Sundays. A League participant school shall not participate in any athletic contest or conduct any practice, or teach any plays, formations, or skills on Sunday.

• Violation.  Any showing of films to, or meetings of athletes for the purpose of instructions or reviewing of plays, formations, or skills in any sport will be construed as a violation.
• Coaches Sunday Meetings.  This does not prevent coaches from meeting on Sunday or from viewing films or planning an instructional program, provided that no athletes are involved in this meeting.

Contest Scheduling & Allowable Contests

Contest Scheduling Rules

The following section combines State Law, State Board of Education regulations, and UIL rules regarding scheduling and participation in a contest.   

• One contest per school week:  According to State Board of Education mandates, students may only participate on one day per activity during the school week. School districts shall ensure no more than one contest or performance per activity is scheduled per student.                                                                         *Exception:  Tournaments and post-season competition may be scheduled as an exception to the school week limit. As well, district varsity contests postponed by weather or public disaster, provided that they are rescheduled and played on the next available date, other than Sunday, on which another district match is not scheduled.  Junior varsity, freshman and junior high teams may not play postponed matches as an exception.
• TEA and Participation:  The Texas Education Agency defines participation as being involved with the activity, traveling with the team, or sitting on the bench. Example:  On a Tuesday night, the student’s name is on the scorebook but she remains on the bench and does not actually enter the game.  This counts as participation for TEA but not UIL, this student would not be able to participate again until after school on Friday, per TEA regulations.
• UIL and Participation: UIL defines participation if a student athlete actually entered the contest as a player. In the example above, the contest does not count as one of the allowable games as determined by UIL policy.

    Definitions:

• Calendar week means 12:01 a.m. on Sunday through midnight on Saturday. 
• School week means the week beginning at 12:01 a.m. on the first instructional day of a calendar week and ends at the close of instruction on the last instructional day of the calendar week, excluding holidays. 
• Post-district play means competition in UIL playoff series or contests such as bi-district, area, regional, etc.

Water Polo Allowable Contests

     Number of Contests allowed (2022-23)

• 0 Tournaments and 26 Games or
• 1 Tournament and 23 Games or
• 2 Tournaments and 20 Games or
• 3 Tournaments and 17 Games

UIL/TEA Side-by-Side. UIL limits participation in contests per calendar week in some sports.  For UIL, participation is defined as a student actually entering a contest.  Example:  On Tuesday night, the student's name is on the scorebook, but the student remains on the bench and does not actually enter the game.  This does not count as participation in a UIL contest according to UIL (but does count according to state law.  The student cannot participate again until Friday after school).  The Tuesday game does not count as one of the games UIL permits the student to participate in for that calendar week or for the season because the student did not enter the game. 

Water Polo:

            - a single game: or

            - a double header (a student could play two back-to-back varsity games or in a varsity and junior varsity game, at the same site same night). 

Each game counts as one of the student's total games for the season. Students may play additional games at the conclusion of that school week because UIL does not limit the number of games per calendar week in Water Polo.

    Games

Three games may be played during the first two calendar weeks allowed for matches (according to the official UIL calendar.) If school is in session, the one contest per school week rule must be followed. 

Water Polo Tournament Regulations

Tournaments. Tournaments may be held on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Two-day tournmanets can be held on Thursday/Saturday or Friday/Saturday; one-day tournaments can only be held on Saturday.

District Certification

• The DEC shall determine the place and/or time games in case of disagreement between two schools. 
• If not previously scheduled, a district executive committee may authorize a single game or tiebreaker tournament to resolve district ties. A one-game play-off could break a two-way tie. A tiebreaker tournament could resolve a tie between three or more schools. 
• Tie-breaker games (two teams tied) must be held in compliance with calendar week and school week restrictions.
• Tie-breaker tournaments (three or more schools tied), if held on more than one day, must be held on consecutive days. Can be played on Thursday.

    NOTE: These games must be completed by the district certification deadline and will not count against the allowable games if not previously scheduled.

• If the district executive committee schedules any other games or tournaments as part of their method for determining play-off representatives, the games played must count in the game or tournament limitation.
• The State Executive Committee shall have jurisdiction in all disputes arising between districts. 
• Districts must be certified by 11:59 p.m. on the certification deadline date.

Miscellaneous Water Polo Regulations

Uniforms/Caps. Uniforms must adhere to NFHS rules. 

Videotaping/Filming

Non-Conference and District Contests

Videotaping/Filming by Schools.

• It is a violation to film or videotape a non-conference or district athletic contest in which your school or team is not competing unless prior consent of the two schools involved has been obtained.
• A school does not have to obtain permission to film or tape a NON-CONFERENCE OR DISTRICT contest in which it is competing. However, the film or videotape shall not be utilized until after the contest has been completed.

Films and videotapes become the property of the school doing the filming unless by district rule or by consent of the schools involved in the contest. Videotaping/Filming by Individuals.  Any individual (other than the officially designated school camera) taping or filming must have prior permission from the schools involved in the contest and may not obstruct the view of other spectators of the contest. Commercial Uses.  The use of the films or tapes for commercial purposes must be approved by all schools involved in the contest.

Scrimmage & Game Regulations

Playing Rules. The current National Federation Water Polo Rules shall govern League Water Polo. Rulebooks may be ordered from the National Federation customer service office (800-776-3462) or www.nfhs.org.

Scrimmages: A scrimmage is a meeting of not more than four teams for practice purposes, which does not count as a game for any of the teams. Admission may be charged. Officials may be paid in accordance with the schedule in Section 1204 (m) and may, by prior agreement with the school, be reimbursed for mileage and meals. A school shall not play in a scrimmage after its first interschool game or match in that sport. ​ 

Games: Games Per Week.  Schools are limited to one contest (game or double header) per school week. From Friday after school until Saturday midnight, schools are not limited in the number of games in which they participate.​

Postponement. District varsity water polo games postponed by weather or public disaster (not including illness) shall be rescheduled on the next date, other than Sunday, on which another district game is not scheduled.  In the event weather or public disaster forces the makeup game to be rescheduled it shall be rescheduled on the next date as described earlier.  These makeup games may be played as an exception to the school week limitation.  District varsity games that are postponed by weather or public disaster, and not played on the next available date, shall be rescheduled and played on a date determined by the district executive committee, but may not be made up as an exception to the school week limitation.

Scheduling on Sunday.  Schools shall not play or practice on Sunday.  Do not begin a game that cannot be completed before midnight Saturday.  Do not start a game that cannot be finished before midnight Saturday. 

Coach Ejection –

Per NFHS Water Polo Contest Rules (3-6-5): Coaches receiving a red card for disruptive behavior in the bench area will sit out the remainder of the contest plus be suspended from the next contest.

Player Ejection. 

Per NFHS Water Polo Contest Rules (3-6-5) and UIL ejection policy, players receiving one the the following penalties during a water polo match will sit out the remainder of the contest plus suspended from the next contest:

• Red Card – May be issued to individual players on the bench for disruptive behavior.  The person receiving the red card is automatically suspended for the next game.  (Rule 3-6-5)
• Flagrant Misconduct Penalty – Act of flagrant misconduct.  Automatically suspended for the next game.  (Rule 7-12)