The AHSAA banned early-game warmups prior to high school basketball games this last week.

A practice that had taken place for a couple of years now, primarily before boys varsity games, teams would take the court at halftime of the game before theirs to shoot the ball around, stretch their legs and show off their basketball skills for anybody willing to watch.

During this limbo time, however, there were no coaches, game officials or parents monitoring players as they tried to see who could slam down the craziest dunk.

The AHSAA&8217;s ruling stated that the pre-pregame ritual was simply too dangerous for players and could potentially damage the goals from excessive dunking and hanging on the rims.

The association noted that most of these &8220;practices&8221; were taking place for the boys varsity games during the girls varsity halftime.

Representatives of the home team will be in charge of enforcing this new rule and game officials will be responsible for reporting any warm-up violations to the AHSAA.

If an early-game warm-up takes place and equipment is damaged that results in the delay of any of the games scheduled for that evening, the violating team will be required to forfeit the contest.

Some might argue that these new rules are too harsh for kids who are simply trying to get a little extra warmup time to stretch their legs and practice shooting.

But the temptation to showboat for the crowd seems to have been too much for some players, making the AHSAA ruling warranted.

The association could, however, take into account another side of the pre-pregame warm-ups.

If players and coaches feel like their teams are not getting enough warm-up time before their respective games, how difficult would it be to increase the time between each match by five minutes?

It would result in minor scheduling changes for earlier games.

But if the AHSAA is trying to avoid injuries to its basketball players, what better way than to allow them a little more time to warm up, stretch and be properly prepared to play