Day Off Policy

Student-Athlete Day Off Policy

Each intercollege athletic team at Spartanburg Methodist College shall prohibit all athletically related activities one calendar day per week. The mandatory day off is required year-around, no matter if a team is within its 24 weeks of practice or not. The day off may fluctuate from week to week, as determined by the coaching staff.  A week is defined as Monday (12:00am) through Sunday (11:59 pm).

Activities that are not permissible within the mandatory day off are: 

• Activities using equipment related to that sport 

• Field or on-court activity 

• Required weight training or conditioning activities held at the direction of or supervised by an institutional staff member 

• Skill instruction 

• Use of institutional athletics facilities when such activities are supervised or held at the direction of any member of the institution’s coaching staff 

• Voluntary skill instruction at the request of the student athlete

Activities that are permissible within the mandatory day off are: 

• Athletic department academic study tables or tutoring 

• Attendance at an awards or celebration banquet 

• Medical examinations or treatment 

• Meeting with coaches or athletics department staff members on non-athletic matters (i.e. academics, compliance, eligibility, etc.) 

• Participation in community service 

• Team entertainment activities (i.e. leadership training and/or team building activities). Physical components may be incidental to the activity but should be kept to a minimum. 

• Travel to/from competition

Student athletes are free to participate in their own athletic related activities on their day off but cannot be mandated to do so by the SMC coaching staff.

Each head coach is responsible for communicating the “Day off Policy” with their student athletes at their first team meeting.

Each team’s alignment with the policy will be the responsibility of each head coach, with oversight from the Director of Athletics and Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance and Eligibility.

The policy will be included on the gosmcpioneers.com website, and in the Student-Athlete Handbook.

The Director of Athletics, Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance and Eligibility, and the Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) can be notified via email with concerns of any non-compliance of the policy. 

Noting the possibility that extenuating circumstances may merit an exemption, this will be reviewed in consultation with the head coach, Director of Athletics, Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance and Eligibility, and the FAR.