You talked me into it!

Coach,

i have a similar policy. Although it's a different situation here in the netherlands (no school program, clubs that are founded by football-enthousiast who pay money to practice and play) i do encourage my players to do a different sport in the off season. I have many players practicing with different sports such as my RB (does racketball for quickness), my TE (plays basketball for jump improvement, catching and field position awareness), my linemen all lift weights, i even have a safety that does jazz-ballet becausde it improves his motoric skills and his balance. I tell them that they don't have to like the sport but that it's a mean to an end.
And it's true, they all appear fresh and ready to go at the first practice. And they've all improved on some level.

Good luck with your team, all the best from the netherlands

Coach,

Good that the parents are willing to keep an eye on their kids in the off-season. It's incredibly how much working hard in the off-season can benefit you in the (short) regular football season.
I wish you well with your kids.
Our teams has try-outs for new players coming sunday. Hope we will get some new talents. It's so hard here in Holland to love football....I Need players badly.

Coach Hans

We handle missed practices separately. This is strickly an off season policy.

i 100% agree with your policy. i have run into so many problems with the guys who think football starts in august and ends in october. (of course, since the state playoffs are in november, this is the main reason our season ends in october, but......) my school board and administrators told me that i could absolutely not implement anything of any sort here. so, i do my best to encourage 2, if not 3 sport activity, and try my best to mandate year long lifting.

i wish you luck. the hardest part will be sticking to the policy. what happens when the next michael vick walks into your office and says he's not doing anything? that's the hardest part.