A major rules change on the national level could have big ramifications for high school baseball teams in Mississippi.

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) earlier this week directed its members to regulate the number of pitches a high school player can throw in a game, in an effort to prevent injuries. The Mississippi High School Activities Association and the state’s coaches will meet next week to draft rules specific to Mississippi.

While Warren County’s high school coaches like the rule itself, they have plenty of questions and concerns about the logistics of enforcing it. Everything from who will count pitches, to managing the totals for both high school and travel teams are issues that will have to be ironed out, they said.

“I think it’s a great idea, but the issue is when they get to playing between seven different teams in showcases and travel ball. How are you going to keep up with that pitch count?” Warren Central coach Conner Douglas said. “It’s a great idea for kids and their careers. But it’s got to go a long way past the high school game.”

The NFHS did not set a specific number of pitches, but a limit must be set by next season, said Elliot Hopkins, the NFHS director of sports and student services. The limits will go into effect in the spring of 2017.

Texas has already established its limit at 125 pitches, and Alabama, Colorado and Kentucky have said that will be their number, too, Hopkins said. Minnesota will use 105 during the season and 115 or 120 in the playoffs.

If Mississippi sets a similar number, it might be a non-issue for many teams. Most coaches use 100 pitches as a benchmark for when to pull a pitcher, and it’s rare that they go very far past that.

USA Baseball, the national governing body for amateur baseball, in 2014 launched the program “Pitch Smart,” which sets age-appropriate guidelines for the number of pitches a pitcher as young as 7 can throw and the amount of rest they should get between pitching appearances. Most amateur baseball leagues have adopted the guidelines, which set 120 pitches as the maximum recommended for pitchers ages 19-22. It then also requires they receive four days of rest.

Douglas said his starting pitchers only exceeded 100 pitches once last season. He added that he tries to give his pitchers an hour of rest for every pitch they throw.

Vicksburg High coach Derrick DeWald said he’s constantly monitoring his pitchers during the game for fatigue, and typically pulls a pitcher once they near that mark. DeWald added that he plans to shut his pitchers down for two months this fall to rest their arms, and has a policy of not starting them more than once a week during the season.

Both coaches keep their pitchers on a lower count early in the season, when arms are tighter and weaker. They also have someone in the dugout — usually an assistant coach or team manager — charting pitches to keep up with the count.

“We don’t like to throw more than 100 pitches before district starts, and then we’ll let them go a little more after district,” DeWald said. “If a kid throws 30 pitches in an inning, or he’s at 80 pitches in the fourth inning, that’s a lot. You have to be aware of that as well.”

The big concern for both DeWald and Douglas is enforcement of the new rule, which is a more complex issue than it seems.

Enforcing the rule means some official party must keep track of pitch counts, instead of the informal way it’s done now. If that’s an umpire, it might create the need to add an extra member to the crew for each game and that would mean extra expenses for teams.

Currently, umpire crews typically consist of two people for non-division games and three for division games.

“If you’re going to add an extra umpire, that’s an extra $80 a game,” Douglas said.

Douglas and DeWald were both concerned with how the MHSAA would deal with games outside of the high school system, or even monitor them at all. Many players participate in showcase tournaments or with select teams.

Some tournaments have innings limits to prevent coaches from overusing one pitcher, but if a player pitches with his select team on a Saturday and then his high school team on Tuesday, it defeats the purpose of the NFHS rules, the coaches said.

“I don’t know how they’re going to monitor it,” DeWald said. “It’s more common in junior high. If a kid throws on the weekend, I want to know about it. It goes back to awareness on my part, but the parents have to know it, too.”

Another question the coaches have is when the week is considered to start. Some playoff series run on a Friday-Saturday-Monday schedule, or get there because of rainouts. If the pitching week begins on Sunday, coaches could use it as a loophole to circumvent the rule.

There are other ways to get around it, too. If the limit is 120 pitches, a coach could theoretically pull an ace at 115 and still throw him again the next day.

“I think it needs to be innings,” Douglas said. “A kid might throw 35 pitches in an inning and you’d never see it, but you can look at the box score and see how many innings he pitched.”

All of those issues are ones that are expected to be discussed when MHSAA officials and coaches meet next Wednesday in Jackson.

“Until we sit down as a collective group, I don’t know which way they’re going,” DeWald said. “I’m not too worried about it, though. I take care of my guys.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.