Depending on who you're talking to, six pretty good high school football players will be in Michigan this week playing baseball or six pretty good baseball players will be missing the part of football no one enjoys.

Either way you put it, the football coaches at Rock Island, Alleman and Moline were in a tough position this week. The coaches for the Rock Island Legion Post 200 team were in a difficult place. And six young men were caught between a rock and a hard place.

Thanks to a ruling by the Illinois High School Association early this week, it appears an amiable solution was finally found and everyone will come out breathing a little easier.

High school football practice begins in Illinois on Wednesday and every player must have at least 12 practices in before being eligible to play in a game and Post 200 left for Midland, Mich., and the Great Lakes Regional Tuesday and may not be back in the Quad-Cities until sometime next Tuesday.

That would mean the six players affected will miss as many as 12 practice sessions (with two-a-days).

The problem is not a new one for players on the Post 200 squad; three of them were caught in a similar position two years ago when the 1997 advanced to the regional and eventually the World Series. The difference was, in that case all three were Rock Island players and Rocks' football coach Vic Boblett sent along a freshman assistant coach to hold practices.

This year, Alleman and Moline join the mix. And worse yet, the prospective starting quarterback at each school is on the Post 200 roster.

``It's a little different this year because of the quarterbacks,'' said Boblett. ``You really can't practice offense without your quarterback and you can't practice as a quarterback without the offense.''

Boblett's troubles are doubled because not only is prospective starter Bryce Palar out, his backup, Marcus Youngquist will be in Michigan. Those two are joined by Rock Island fullback Brad Pannell.

Alleman quarterback-to-be Ryan Jones is also out of practice until the legion season ends, as is Pioneer multi-purpose back Jake Nelson.

The third starting quarterback on the shelf is Moline's Jay Molina.

``It's amazing the way this worked out with all the quarterbacks,'' said Post 200 coach Mike Bell. ``Throw in J.J. Tubbs (Rock Island's quarterback last season) and we have five of them on our roster this season. I think that tells you a little bit about this team.

``We have a lot of players who are athletes and guys who can do a lot of things. I think a multi-sport athlete is always going to do well because they adapt better to situations.''

The adapting in this case was done by the IHSA after a call from Boblett, who was trying to come up with a solution to the missed practices.

``It would be silly to have all three high schools send an assistant coach for their players,'' said Boblett. ``The rules say it must be a fully-paid high school coach, so that rules out junior high coaches. We thought since John Marx is an assistant coach for the legion and on Dana Just's staff at Alleman, maybe he could coach all six.''

Just wasn't sure that would work out, but the IHSA ruled they would accept that idea if all three schools had a representative sign a letter agreeing to the idea, it would accept the plan.

There was still another hitch. Marx had to get off work at his ``real'' job at this newspaper and get out of a previously scheduled doctor's appointment on Friday.

That's when things got boggled.

``I called Johnny's bosses and we seemed to have that worked out,'' said Boblett. ``Then, Tuesday morning, Dana called and said Johnny wasn't going to be able to go because of a physical problem.

``We had to do some quick juggling. We had Andy Campbell, one of our junior high coaches, volunteer to come up and help us with our freshmen this week and that allowed us to send him. Then, we had to get all three schools to re-write their letters to the IHSA. I hope it's all solved now.''

Even with the practices, the football coaches are not guaranteeing anything when the players return.

``I told both guys and their parents that even if we did come up with a solution, they have to be realistic,'' said Just. ``There are a bunch of kids who will be here working their tails off in the heat and doing it twice a day. These guys can't expect to come back and be inserted right into the starting lineup.

``The other thing I told the guys is that there will be real practices run and there won't be just a bunch of goofing around. I saw this coming, I just didn't want to have to think about it until the time came. Now, the time has come and we just have to make the best of it.''

Boblett said the IHSA mandates that the sessions be 90 minutes in length beyond what the players are doing with the baseball team.

``This is an unfortunate situation,'' he said. ``I don't blame the kids, I don't blame the baseball coaches, I don't blame football. I do have a problem with the national legion program.

``I would think this situation comes up in other states and my feeling is that once it happens, you should do something to fix the problem. Instead, they are making it worse by adding more games and extending the season.''

Jeff Wendland covers American Legion baseball for The Dispatch and The Rock Island Argus. Please email him at Wendland@qconline.com.