NMAA LIGHTNING/THREATENING WEATHER POLICY AND GUIDELINES
As the Fall Sports season rolls along, the NMAA would like to remind everyone of the LIGHTNING/THREATENING WEATHER POLICY AND GUIDELINES. Administrators, Officials, Athletic Trainers and Head Coaches should work together when making any determinations to suspend play. HAVE A GAME PLAN.
Should weather become an issue, please note that once the contest begins the assigned contest officials are responsible for making decisions to stop play due to unsafe weather conditions. While the final burden lies with contest officials, it is highly recommended that host site administration and contest officials work together when making any determinations to interrupt play and use any and all available information in doing so. If available, on-site medical professionals/athletic trainers should also be consulted and included in the decision-making process. When in doubt, err on the side of safety.
If contests are interrupted due to weather, the administration from each school must work together to determine how long the teams will wait to attempt to complete the contest. This decision should not be made based on the current score, but instead on a variety of factors including but not limited to distance traveled by the visiting school, time of day, remaining time left, projected weather conditions, ability to reschedule/resume the contest, field conditions, etc.
The NMAA should be contacted if questions arise from the officials or administrators when discussing these issues on site.
As a reminder and per Bylaw 7.10.2, suspended contests that cannot be resumed the same day should be handled as follows:
In the event that a game must be interrupted because of conditions which make it impossible to continue play (i.e. lightning, darkness, power outage, etc.) the head official/referee shall declare it an official game if one complete half or more of the game has been played; based upon the NFHS definition of a regulation game. If less than one-half of the game has been played, and it is a district game/post-season game, the game must be rescheduled from the point of interruption/suspension of play. If less than one-half of the game has been played, and it is a non-district game, the participating schools must mutually agree to reschedule the game from the point of interruption/suspension of play or the game will be considered a non-game.
