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NCHSAA commissioner 'cautiously optimistic' about playing fall sports, but unsure when it will happen
Posted July 16, 2020 10:40 p.m. EDT
https://www.highschoolot.com/nchsaa-commissioner-cautiously-optimistic-about-playing-fall-sports-but-unsure-when-it-will-happen/19192441/
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
NCHSAA commissioner 'cautiously optimistic' about playing fall sports, but unsure when it will happen
Tags: NC High School Athletic Association, coronavirus
Posted July 16, 2020 10:40 p.m. EDT
By Nick Stevens, HighSchoolOT managing editor
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — N.C. High School Athletic Association Commissioner Que Tucker said the association is doing everything it can to make sure fall sports happen in North Carolina, but a lot of things must fall into place for that to happen.
Will there be a sports season this fall?
"Well, that's the $64,000 question that everyone wants to know the answer for," Tucker said in a live interview on WRAL, her first interview since the NCHSAA postponed the start of the fall sports season until at least Sept. 1.
The NCHSAA Board of Directors opted to postpone the start of the season until after the school year begins, something that multiple administrators have told HighSchoolOT they had hoped would happen so they can focus on safely starting the academic year. It also gives the NCHSAA more time to collect information from its members to determine the best path forward.
"I remain cautiously optimistic that we may be able to see football (and other fall sports). When that date will be ... I can't say tonight," Tucker said. "We're going to do everything we can safely do to have football, but to also have those other sports, and we're making plans to try to do that as safely as we can."
Every state association in the country is facing the same concerns. Some have already started looking at options to move fall sports to later in the school year, possibly condensing all three seasons to be completed in 2021.
When the NCHSAA suspended spring sports, it avoided canceling the season until it had no other option — postponing the resumption date multiple times. It's likely the NCHSAA would take a similar approach to fall sports.
"(If fall sports can't resume) then we'll continue to push it until we run out of room and then have to look for the second semester," Tucker said.
The NCHSAA allowed schools the option of resuming limited summer workouts on June 15, as long as their school districts approved. Those workouts have been governed by Phase 1 of the NCHSAA's plan to resume sports and include strict guidelines to mitigate the risk of spreading Covid-19.
Among the guidelines, all students and staff must be screened daily for symptoms and have a temperature check, the number of people at a workout is limited, students are to workout in the same groups each day, social distancing must be adhered to, no contact can occur, equipment and water bottles cannot be shared, and players cannot pass balls to one another.
The NCHSAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee has been meeting to discuss the path forward with Phase 2 and Phase 3, however details have not yet been released about the next steps.
Tucker said on Thursday night that the NCHSAA is not ready to move forward with a new phase.
"Right now, we're in that phase where we're trying to figure out what our schools are going to do as it relates to opening," Tucker said. "I can assure you that as soon as we talk to with our Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, we get some further direction from our board, and then we know what our schools are going to do — then we'd like to up it as much as we can so that we would have the opportunity to let the kids now touch the ball, and pass the ball, as opposed to just one player being able to touch the ball, for example."
Tucker admits there are many more questions than answers right now. She called it "frustrating" for athletes, especially seniors who could risk losing their senior seasons.
"I learned from my parents a long time ago that you only can control what you can control, and of course, what I hoe that we're able to do is to provide some type of opportunity, whether that's this fall, or whether it is after Christmas in January, February, whenever that might be," Tucker said. "I do worry about what that date is going to be, but I also am concerned not only about football players, but I'm concerned about tennis players. I'm concerned about basketball players, swimmers, just all of them."
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High School Football in 2020? These States Began Laying Down Their Laws
BY SCOTT MCDONALD ON 7/16/20 AT 10:10 PM EDT
https://www.newsweek.com/high-school-football-2020-these-states-began-laying-down-their-laws-1518500
The largest school district in Texas this week said it will delay in-person classes for the first six weeks of the fall semester, and that extracurricular activities would also be postponed while classes are held online. That means no football, probably, for the giant Houston Independent School District—the seventh-largest school district in the country.
The recent surge in COVID-19 cases has states across the country voicing their own varying opinions on how to handle the upcoming school year, while also dealing with the fact of whether or not high school football will be played, delayed or canceled altogether.
It's a decision already made by some states, like New Mexico and Virginia, that have already declared there will be no sports this fall. Pennsylvania has suspended sports through the fall. But for states like Florida, Texas, California and others across the Sun Belt that are rich in preps football tradition, the decision may come down to a last-second Hail Mary.
High school football coaches and athletic directors now grapple with a decision they've never seen in a playbook, nor while breaking down game film. As for now, it's a coin toss as whether to kick or receive—receive the bad news and cancel the season, or kick the naysayers to the curb and try to play it anyway.
Alabama's largest school district, the Mobile County Public School System, announced Thursday it will only hold virtual classes that start Sept. 1 because of the state's rising number of COVID-19 cases. The state's athletic governing body has yet to make a decision on whether fall sports will be played. Meanwhile, next door in Mississippi, the Magnolia State has said it will delay all high school activities for two weeks.
In Louisiana, football activities can't be done until the state moves into Phase Four of reopening, according to Gov. John Bel Edwards. Currently, Louisiana is only in Phase Two, and there are no signs of a blitz into Phase Four.
The Virginia High School League (VHSL) announced Wednesday there would be no high school football this fall. That means the football-fertile Hampton Roads area of Norfolk and Virginia Beach, and towns all across the Commonwealth, won't get to see their next rising stars.
In football-frenzied Florida, there have been no alterations to the fall schedule, and Gov. Ron DeSantis want open schools on time. In Texas, the individual school districts have begun making their own decisions while its state's governing body, the University Interscholastic League, weighs its decisions on whether or not they should play. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made it clear he wants in-person classes to happen this fall.
The two largest school districts in California—Los Angeles Unified and San Diego Unified—have both declared they will start the fall with online classes. They are joining the lead of schools in other countries that also delayed person-to-person contact.
"Those countries that have managed to safely reopen schools have done so with declining infection rates and on-demand testing available. California has neither. The skyrocketing infection rates of the past few weeks make it clear the pandemic is not under control," the two California districts declared in a joint statement.
That likely means no football in California as other counties could soon follow.
This report will be updated with information across all states as it comes available