The NCAA passed a new legislation for Division II stating that all fall athletes now have the ability to stay on campus over the summer and work with strength and conditioning coaches.

This same legislation passed last summer, although only applied to Division II football programs. This new bylaw will go into effect on June 1.

“Basically it says that a strength and conditioning coach is allowed to create and supervise summer conditioning beginning June one for all fall athletes coming in,” said Adam Bracken, Ashland’s Compliance Officer.

The legislation was voted upon in January this year by every Division II institution, along with each conference and each university’s Student Athletic Advisory Committee.

If student-athletes decide to remain on campus, they will work with AU’s head strength and conditioning coach AG Kruger.

Kruger says this opportunity will be very beneficial to the team’s success and will also be an advantage to the individual athletes as well.  

He knows if teams take advantage of this, the chance of injuries at the start of the season will decrease.

“You look at it as a safety standpoint,” said Kruger. “If they are not conditioned, if they are not in the right frame of mind, and also being in the right shape and being ready for that competition season, you’re looking at a lot of injuries happening.”

Kruger said programs in the past that have not come back in shape have seen a large number of injuries, which can become a major deficiency to the team’s success.

Despite the advantage of preventing injury and having all the athletes better prepared, there are many mixed feelings about the legislation among the athletic department, coaching staffs and the athletes themselves.

The discrepancy in the legislation is over whether staying over the summer will be considered voluntary or as some athletes put it, “voluntary.”

Although they are not forced to stay, it is not secret among the athletes that it may in their best interest to stay if they are concerned about playing time.

“It’s quote-un-quote optional,” said junior football player Zach Bernhard. “If you want to be a contributing player, you definitely want to stay over the summer and be here for the workouts.”

Division II’s motto is “Life in Balance,” meaning there should be an equal amount of athletics, academics and personal life. So the question then becomes, will this new legislation take some of that balance away?

Ashland’s athletic director Al King says he is not sure how the legislation will work itself this year, but thinks is can only benefit the athletes if they decide to take advantage of it.

“None of us know for sure until we go through it,” said King. “You have so many athletes trying to do training on their own. Then they come back here in the fall and then try to pull everything together. What this does [the legislation] is it gets everybody on the same page.”

Whether or not a student-athlete wants to go home over the summer to see family, many are required to have internships in order to graduate or just know having an internship is important for their future.

“In the event that I had to give up football or one or the other, I would definitely choose the internship or the hospital whatever it may be because long term that’s obviously what’s going to be important,” said Bernhard.

The athletic department says they understand when situations like this come up, and because the legislation is on a voluntary basis, the program will not hold it against the athlete if they decide to take an internship over staying for summer workouts at Ashland.

“We understand as coaches and as different coaching staffs, if you have an internship for you to have success in your lifetime after sport, we understand,” said Kruger.  “That should not hurt with what you are doing with workouts at home.”

King says time will tell with the passing of the legislation because everything is so new, but he is interested to see what type of feedback the department gets after this first summer.