(Radio Iowa) – Starting this summer, there will be a week off designated for family time for Iowa high school athletes, coaches and those involved with music and speech. The week of July 25th is designated as Family Week, so there will be no practices for athletes or participants in music and speech. Tom Keating, executive director of the Iowa High School Athletic Association in Boone, explains the simple idea. “It was important for us to at least impress upon people that we thought family time was important, to be quite honest,” Keating says. “If I had my way, we’d probably go more than a week but you’ve gotta’ start somewhere and this is where we’re starting.”

The state baseball tournament will go on as scheduled during the last week in July at Principal Park in Des Moines. Next year, Keating says the summer baseball and softball seasons will be starting in mid-May. “What that will coincide with is a change in some of our spring sport dates,” he says, “so everything will move back a week and that way, we have that week clear.”

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union is cooperating with the boys athletic association in the Family Week program, he says, and the same goes for the Iowa High School Music Association.