Regulations
| Dead Periods for the 2025-2026 academic year are as follows: |
- FALL PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for ALL SPORTS is July 28 – August 4.
- IN-SEASON FALL DEAD PERIOD – For football schools (any school that has a football team, even if you are choosing NOT to start on August 4). The dead period is from August 4 to September 1 for Winter and Spring Sports.
- If your school does not have football, your dead period for Winter and Spring Sports is from August 11 to September 8.
- WINTER PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for ALL SPORTS is November 3 – November 10.
- IN-SEASON WINTER DEAD PERIOD – For all schools – dead period for Fall and Spring Sports is November 10 to December 8.
- SPRING PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for ALL SPORTS is February 23 – March 2.
- IN-SEASON SPRING DEAD PERIOD – For all schools – Fall and Winter Sports dead period is March 2 to March 30.

A dead period is a specific time when most athletic-related activities and instructional contact between coaches and student-athletes are not allowed. These periods are designed to give athletes rest, promote multi-sport participation, and prevent year-round pressure in a single sport. Dead periods include informal instruction, open gyms, school sponsored camps or clinics, team-associated commercial camps or clinics, and school sponsored league play.
Pre-season dead period:
- Occurs during the 7 days before the official start of the fall, winter, and spring sports seasons (as defined in 14 DE Admin. Code 1035).
- Coaches may not have any instructional contact with athletes during this time.
- The only activity allowed is non-instructional meetings (for example: handing out tryout schedules, medical forms, and permission slips).
- No practices, workouts, or skill instruction may take place.
In-season dead period:
- Begins on the first permissible practice date of a sports season and ends 4 weeks after that date.
- During these 4 weeks, coaches of sports not currently in season have limited activity options.
- They may lead workouts and conditioning sessions (as defined in Section 8.0), but no skill instruction or sport-specific drills are allowed.
- These periods apply as follows:
- Fall sports in-season dead period – applies to all winter and spring sports teams. If a school’s football team starts early for a “week zero” game, that date starts the dead period for the entire school.
- Winter sports in-season dead period – applies to all fall and spring sports teams.
- Spring sports in-season dead period – applies to all fall and winter sports teams.
| Dead Periods for the 2026-2027 academic year are as follows: |
- FALL PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – For football schools – dead period for ALL SPORTS is August 6 – August 13.
- FALL IN-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – For football schools – The dead period is from August 13 to September 10 for Winter and Spring Sports.
- FALL PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – For schools WITHOUT football – dead period for ALL SPORTS is August 10 – August 17.
- FALL IN-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – For schools WITHOUT football- The dead period is from August 17 to September 14 for Winter and Spring Sports.
- WINTER PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for ALL SPORTS is November 2 – November 9.
- WINTER IN-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for Fall and Spring Sports is November 9 to December 7.
- SPRING PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for ALL SPORTS is February 22 – March 1.
- SPRING IN-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for Fall and Winter Sports is March 1 to March 29.

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