While coaches are grateful to even have any type of season to begin with, they are not happy with some of the rule modifications that the individual sport committees have come up with.

Last week, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association released new guidelines and rules modifications for fall sports.

While coaches are grateful to even have any type of season to begin with, they are not happy with some of the rule modifications that the individual sport committees have come up with.

“I think these rules were created by people who have never played soccer, because a lot of these rules don’t make a lot of sense,” Holliston boys soccer coach Jay Dupuis said. “The rule modifications to me is not soccer, so we will see.”

Among some of the rule modifications that have left soccer coaches scratching their heads are the elimination of headers, corner kicks, defensive walls on direct kicks, hand checking on defense and follow up of rebounds on penalty kicks during regulation play.

“What I think they are trying to do with some of these rule modifications is to minimize body contact as much as possible,” said Milford athletic director Peter Boucher, who is also a member of the MIAA COVID-19 Task Force. “If you think about it, on corner kicks, there can easily be eight to 10 people all congregated around a small area near the goal.”

Dupuis, however, believes that there is a way to coach around that to avoid bunching up by the goal on corners.

“I think a lot of what they are trying to do is something that you can coach around,” Dupuis said. “You can eliminate direct corners by coaching kids to kick the corner to a teammate instead of having them kicking the ball directly towards the goal.”

In the absence of corner kicks, they are being replaced by a direct free kick for the offensive team.

“I don’t understand medically how they came about these recommendations and adjustments,” Natick girls soccer coach Dave Wainwright said. “What I do understand is that it is above my pay grade.”

Boucher, however, does admit that these rule modifications are going to have a dramatic effect on the game.

“Soccer is going to be very different,” Boucher said. “I think you are going to see a lot of high scoring games.”

Dupuis thinks that overall the rules modifications are going to have a negative impact on all teams.

“The hardest part is not giving up any set pieces,” Dupuis said. “You can’t really play defense so there are going to be a lot of goals scored.

“The teams that are ‘kick and run’ are going to be in trouble.”

Wainwright didn’t feel like the soccer committee and sports medicine committee really took into consideration coach’s input.

“I don’t think they took those recommendations from us at all,” he said. “I don’t think the coaches had any sense of advocacy or agency.”

Soccer isn’t the only sport that is facing significant modifications to their sport this fall.

Field hockey is another sport that is facing some big changes. The biggest change is the sport going from an 11v11 playing field to just 7v7.

“I think it could be a health concern because we are asking the kids to run more while also wearing masks,” Hopkinton field hockey coach Becky Avate said. “We have been able to play 7v7 for a short period of time like in overtime, but to play 7v7 for a full 60 minutes, I think it could affect performance.

“I don’t understand why they determined field hockey needs to be play 7v7 when soccer is being allowed to play with a full field of players.”

Boucher admits that he isn’t necessarily a fan of all of the modifications but he is just trying to do what he can to make sure kids have sports to play this fall.

“We are going to do whatever we need to do to play these sports this fall,” he said.

The coronavirus isn’t the only obstacle that athletic departments and schools will have to navigate through this fall either, as mosquito-transmitted infection Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) will likely again be present in the region.

“Between corona and Triple E, I just hope to get some games in,” Dupuis said.

Ethan Winter is a senior multimedia sports journalist at the Daily News. He can be reached at ewinter@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @EWints.