Communication devices are headed for Colorado high school baseball. Here's what to know

Every year, the National Federation of State High School Associations makes changes to high school sports rules to keep up with changes at the college and professional levels.

A significant change is coming during the 2023-24 baseball season as the use of electronic communication devices from the dugout to catchers will be permitted in high school baseball.

The change comes as more college-level squads are instituting devices to help with communications and speed up the game — professionals have already adopted the change. The trickle-down effect is an obvious one as it only makes sense to get high school catchers familiar with devices they will need to use if they go on to play at the next level.

The change was one of five rule revisions approved by the NFSHSA Baseball Rules Committee at its June 4-6 meeting in Indianapolis.

The new rules prohibit coaches from communicating with any other player besides the catcher on defense and with any player while batting. The coach must also be in the dugout when using the communication device.

“This change is consistent with the growth of the game and is indicative of a measured and responsible approach to enable technology into our level of competition,” said Elliot Hopkins, NFHS Director of Sports and Educational Services and liaison to the Baseball Rules Committee, in a news release.

“The committee has made these changes to maintain the balance between offense and defense; increase the pace of play; and will responsibly manage technology so there is no advantaged gained by schools that have more available resources than some of their contemporaries. Creating a level playing field is paramount to education-based athletics.”

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The rule change comes as no surprise, but using the devices is something that each high school will get to decide for itself. However, if a school chooses to use the devices, they must have them available and working for both the home team and visiting team.

For Pueblo-area schools, that will be determined by both the athletic director and coaches at each school. Some schools may decide to take part, while others may choose to sit the first year out as the kinks are worked out.

Pueblo County head coach Matt Eades is slightly on the fence about the new rule change but is optimistic it will be good for baseball.

“I'm a little old school, I like the signs and I like the idea of sign stealing,” Eades said. “I also see why the pros and the colleges have gone to it. It's something that we may or may not use. I'm not really sure, but it's definitely a clean way to do it.”

As far as the effect it will have on the game, Eades expects it to speed up the pitching game.

“It speeds up the game as far as, you don't have to change out signs every inning and the catcher can be on board with the pitcher,” Eades said. “We haven't decided yet if we are going to use it.

"We made the transition this past year, we used a wristband system where we're giving numbers to our catchers and the middle infielder was involved in that too. This is an even easier system: we're telling him to throw the fastball outside and he's going to put the fastball sign; hopefully the pitcher will throw that pitch. Whenever the college and pros do something, the high schools are not far behind.”

Pueblo South coach Kevin Ortiz said what impact the rule change will have is still up in the air.

“We really don’t know how it will affect us, it could be good, it could be bad,” Ortiz said. “It’s definitely something we are interested in. For us, it would probably be a more mathematical way of figuring out what the next pitch might be versus something a coach could see.”

Ortiz went on to say that coaches can see things on the field that most casual fans may not. So, the ability to adjust a pitch call on the spot between catcher and coach could be vitally helpful in crucial situations.

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Only time will tell how these devices will affect Colorado high school baseball, but one thing is for certain — the change is needed to keep up with higher levels of baseball.

Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or on Twitter: @chowebacca. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo baseball teams welcome new rule allowing communication devices