While no official decision regarding the status of the high school fall sports season was announced on Tuesday, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Board of Directors did approve three recommendations from the organization’s COVID-19 Task Force during its first meeting of the 2020-2021 school year.
Most notably, the MIAA’s BOD voted in favor of the recommendation that the fall season be delayed until Sept. 14, should sports be deemed viable by the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA).
The BOD also approved recommendations that the MIAA would work in compliance with forthcoming joint guidelines from the DESE and EEA regarding fall season youth and K-12 sports, and that the MIAA would reconvene three days after those guidelines are released to discuss the matter further.
While guidelines aren’t expected until early August, the MIAA’s decision to delay the beginning of the season gives schools extra time to acclimate to opening under what will most certainly be stringent safety measures this fall.
“It’s better to get the schools in and settled from an administrative standpoint because if there’s a concern of bringing everybody together, we wanted to do that before breaking out to small groups (for athletics),” said COVID-19 Task Force co-chair Keith Crowley, Principal of St. John’s Prep in Danvers. “We’d want students settled into a structure first. That does not mean all sports will start at this point, just for what sports would be deemed viable at that time.”
Original start dates for the fall sports season were Aug. 21 for football and Aug. 24 for all other sports. The MIAA’s Handbook states in Rule 35.4.1 that, “For the fall season only, the first team competition may not occur before the 14th calendar day after and including the first day of practice except golf, which may not occur until after seven calendar days from the first practice.” Football teams are required to have 15 days of practice before playing a game. The BOD did not discuss during Tuesday’s meeting whether those rules would be altered or shortened under this plan.
Jeffrey C. Riley, Commissioner of the Massachusetts DESE, joined the meeting and reiterated to the MIAA that his organization has asked school districts for three reopening plans: in person instruction for all, remote learning, and a hybrid model incorporating both. Riley said that if sports are to be viable this fall, they would be done so under strict guidelines.
“If we can do sports, we’d certainly like to do it. But only if they can be done in a safe way,” he explained. “We need to balance that with the safety issues and possibilities there, we’re trying to rely on the best medical advice we can get as we try and look at what sports look like going forward.”
Riley was asked by the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School AD Tom Arria whether the DESE would look at sports on an individual basis or whether it would be an all-or-nothing decision.
“We’re looking at all possibilities to see what could be done if we do go forward,” he offered. “I can’t say it definitely will be all or nothing at this time but we do recognize that some sports may present different issues than others. We really need to work with medical professionals to figure out the best course of action. I wouldn’t rule anything out at this point.”
COVID-19 Task Force co-chair Thom Holdgate (Duxbury) said his subcommittee elicited survey responses from over 1,000 people in the state in regard to individual districts’ confidence in safely being able to host sports this fall. That group included superintendents, athletic directors, principals, coaches and athletic trainers.
“What we thought in May and what we know now is somewhat different,” Holdgate said. “We’ve also shared documents from all over the country looking at what different states are doing in return protocols, knowing Mass. starts a bit later than most.”
MIAA BOD President Jeff Granantino said ultimately, decisions will be made based on the guidelines presented from the state.
“While we will hear from the Task Force, we will ultimately have to wait for the guidelines from DESE, the Dept. of Public Health, and the EEA in coordination with the Governor’s office to know whether we will be able to offer a full slate of fall athletics,” he said.
Entering this week, at least 14 states had delayed the start of fall high school sports. California, New Mexico and Virginia moved them to the spring, while New York State canceled all regional and state championships while also formulating an emergency condensed schedule to be used if sports can’t be played at all in the fall due to the pandemic.