CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – While fall sports in Surry County are still up in the air, plans revealed Wednesday in Virginia show Carroll and Patrick counties won’t be playing any football or volleyball in the next few months.
The executive committee of the Virginia High School League met in Charlottesville in a special session for the purpose of discussing the fall sports season.
The committee unanimously voted 35-0 to meet on Monday, July 27, to vote on one of the three recommended models presented at the meeting for reopening sports and activities. The committee also voted to delay the beginning of fall sports until a final decision is made that day.
None of the three plans on the final list for approval include allowing football, volleyball or cheerleading this fall.
One of the plans would cancel those activities altogether for the 2020-21 school year. Two of the three plans would push these fall activities out until the spring semester to see if they can be possible by then.
“It’s important to remember that in all these models playing sports in the high-risk category depends on being out of the current Phase III guidelines. All our efforts will continue towards advocating for the opening of sports and activities in a safe and reasonable way that will protect athletes, activity participants, coaches, officials and the public,” said Dr. John “Billy” Haun, VHSL executive director.
“The VHSL will continue making judgments based on the best available information and directives provided by the governor, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH), and the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE),” said Haun, whose doctorate is in education administration and supervision.
Shannon Butler, VHSL executive committee chairwoman and principal at York High School, said, “The goal in all our discussions has been to provide our student-athletes and activity participants the best opportunity to return to the playing fields, courts, track and stages during this school year in as safe an environment as possible.
“Our decision today will allow members of the executive committee to collaborate with the regions and groups that they represent to make a decision on July 27 that is in the best interest of our students. Moving forward, our ultimate goal would be to have for all of our student-athletes the opportunity to safely represent their schools on the playing field during the 2020-2021 school year.”
The three models for the opening of sports/activities are as follows:
Model 1 – Leave all sports in current season. Low- and moderate-risk sports that would be allowed to play are golf and cross country. High-risk sports that would not be played are field hockey, football, volleyball and cheer. A fall activity that would be allowed is theater.
Model 2 – Switch the fall and spring seasons. Low- and moderate-risk spring sports that would be allowed to play in the fall are track and field, tennis, soccer, baseball and softball. High risk sports that would not be played are boys and girls lacrosse. Spring activities that would be allowed are theater, forensics/debate and film festival.
Model 3 – Delay all VHSL sports as well as move fall events to late winter, part of the Condensed Interscholastic Plan. All sports would remain in their same season where they are currently aligned.
• Season 1 (Winter) would start practices Dec. 14, with the first contest no sooner than Dec. 28. The season would end Feb. 20;
• Season 2 (Fall) would begin Feb. 15, first game March 1, with the season ending May 1;
• Season 3 (Spring) April 12, first game April 26, sending ending June 26.
Last week, Que Tucker, commissioner of the N.C. High School Athletic Association, was asked about a similar idea to Model 2 of flipping fall and spring sports.
She said one issue is that fall sports teams have already been holding voluntary workouts this summer, and the spring sports have not, so the athletes might not be physically fit and mentally prepared for a fall season.
And, it’s not just about moving football to a better time, but whether other sports would be willing to move, too.
“What do our softball coaches say? What are our baseball coaches saying? What about those natural spring sport coaches and principals of those member schools? So, I understand football coaches lobbying, but that’s not going to be what tips the scale for me,” Tucker said.
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In other news, The VHSL committee suspended the July-August dead period for 2020 which means schools can continue out-of-season practice activities at this time.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com