"For us, it's great because usually you don't see the guys for a month, but now you have those eight extra days," says men's hockey coach, Bob Miele.

New NCAA rule changes have been put into place that increase the flexibility of practice dates available to teams at the NCAA Division 3 leve.. Coach Miele is using the extra days provided to get his players on the ice earlier in the year so that they can use the time later in preseason to focus more on game-planning.

This past January, legislation was passed in Division III of the NCAA that eliminates weeks as the measurement for a season. With the new rules in place, all teams except football are given 114 days to use during a season. These changes also increase the offseason segment for spring and fall sports from 16 to 24 days.

With the weeks measurement of years past, some sports were not able to meet as a team until their designated 14 week season started. Teams now have eight more days to use whenever they want, which means that winter and spring teams have the opportunity to meet and or begin workouts once the academic year begins when all of the athletes move into campus.

So, what does this mean for the teams affected?

"The new rule allows more flexibility," says baseball coach, Nathan Bashaw earlier this fall. "For instance, yesterday we were rained out due to the field conditions. If you didn't use those days in years past, you would lose it when your week ended."

With the new day system, coach Bashaw is able to comfortably cancel practices due to inclement weather without the worry of losing time with his team. If you have to cancel a practice, you can save the day to use at a later time.

"The rule went from 16 to 24 practices," says softball's Victoria Quill, "so that gives us a lot more time to get to know the first-year students. I think, come springtime, we'll definitely know our team a lot better and be a lot closer."

A huge positive from being able to meet the team much earlier in the year is getting the first-years acclimated quickly. Victoria believes that the extra practice time will be crucial towards making new Westfield State student athletes comfortable with the team and the campus.

"We get to lift more," says baseball's Nolan Florence. "This year, we are getting eight lifts in November…it gives me something to do, rather than going out and lifting on our own."

Baseball is using those eight additional offseason days to run mandatory lifts in the month of November, which can lead to players getting in shape months before the season and can increase the amount of time that the team gets to be together.

While these changes may take some time to get used to for returning Owls, the rule change adds flexibility, increases team-bonding time, and helps athletes stay in shape well before the season begins.

-- written by Cam Boudreau, Sports Information Intern