The Nye County School District has made readily available a Parent-Athlete Handbook for the 2006-2007 season. Ignore it at your own peril.

The handbook is available at every Nye County school where athletics are part of the extracurricular program.

The table of contents include sections on:

Insurance Requirements

Football Only Warning

Residency Requirements

Off-season Sport Conditioning Permit

Parental Approval Form

NCSD Violation of Training Rules (Mandatory Penalties)

Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association Amateur Standing.

A brief synopsis of each section (get a copy of the handbook to pass along all of the information available to parents, guardians and athletes):

INSURANCE -- Every student must be covered by health insurance to participate. If a student does not have health insurance coverage, check with athletics directors. Participation is not allowed until sufficient insurance information is received.

FOOTBALL ONLY WARNING -- Participating in competitive athletics may result in severe injury, including paralysis or death. Changes in rules, improving conditioning programs, better medical coverage and improvements in equipment have reduced these risks, but it is impossible to eliminate such risks from athletics;

Players can reduce the chance of injury by obeying all safety rules in their sport, reporting all physical programs to their coaches, following a proper conditioning program, and inspecting their own equipment daily. Damaged equipment must be replaced immediately.

RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS -- To be eligible to participate in a NIAA-sanctioned sport, a student must attend the school located in the attendance zone or boundary of the student's parents or legal guardians physical residence.

A student whose parents are divorced or legally separated must participate at the school zone for the parent having primary physical custody. If custody is jointly shared between two parents, the student shall choose which residence will be primary for establishing athletic eligibility.

Legal guardianship must be court-appointed to be recognized by the NIAA.

Student-athletes have responsibilities; rules violators are subject to probation, suspension or expulsion.

To be eligible, a student must:

Be a student in the ninth, 10^th, 11^th or 12^th grade in a Nye County School Distrtict-sanctioned school;

Be under 19 years old on Sept. 1 of the year in which he or she competes;

Have been enrolled in a high school in the semester of participation no later than 20 days after the beginning of the semester;

Reside with parents, the parent with legal custody or court-appointed guardian;

Not have transferred from one high school district to another without a correspondintg change in residence on the part of his or her parents, or court-appointed guardian, and;

Be academically eligible.

Boys and girls must have physical examinations completed before they can begin working out with their respective teams. Preseason football drills began Aug. 10 for all Nye County schools; girls volleyball, boys and girls soccer, boys and girls cross country, and girls golf started Aug. 14 at PVHS. Beatty, Round Mountain and Tonopah have volleyball teams.