That's a strawman...you gonna tell a coach that a kid can't make football practice today because kid has individual practice time? C'mon now, imagine a kid skipping a clinician rehearsal because they had to run by themselves for 20 minutes for cross country. You would tell that kid you can run any time, but this is our time.

I get it, band is usually at the bottom of the totem pole. And yes, it's frustrating. But this is not the hill. Our lives have gotten so much better when we stopped requiring practice logs, and started focusing on playoff assignments. Now, if they're practicing, they're practicing the right things. Now they're doing it on their own timeline and we don't have to get picky about when it happens.

Because at the end of the day, we want the kids to get better. Requiring the act of practicing will never work as well as giving the kid an assignment. They'll treat it like homework.