The dominoes are beginning to fall into place throughout the area, as high schools in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region continue to move toward a potential fall sports season. Each individual district must decide whether to pursue fall sports, with some needing approval from their respective school committees in order to take the next step.
Turners Falls High School started that trend on Tuesday night, as the Gill-Montague Regional School District School Committee approved the sports of field hockey and golf for fall competition. Athletic Director Adam Graves presented before the school committee based on recommendations from himself, Principal Joanne Menard and Superintendent Brian Beck. The committee ultimately voted unanimously to move forward.
“Our goal is to provide our kids with as many opportunities as possible and I think we’ve done that,” said Graves. “Yes, sports will look different but at least we’re moving toward giving them the opportunity to play.”
A meeting of Franklin County athletic directors on Wednesday continued to bring the fall picture into clearer focus. The group voted to sponsor varsity teams for competition in field hockey, golf and cross country, while football, soccer, cheer and volleyball teams will be only allowed to practice under Level 1 guidelines from the state. While the MIAA isn’t expected to release its final modifications for fall sports until around Sept. 1, Franklin County has honed in on those three sports as their fall catalog.
“We’re just trying to get normalcy back in some type of way with these kids,” Greenfield AD Mike Kuchieski said. “As Franklin County ADs, we felt this was the best option moving forward.”
The sports that won’t play this fall — volleyball, soccer, football and cheer — are eligible to play games during the special “fall II” season created by the MIAA, set to run Feb. 22 through April 25. That season will be reassessed by the state at a later date.
“This has been the hardest few weeks in all my years in athletics,” admitted Kuchieski. “We’re trying to make the best decisions for all of our student/athletes. I wish we didn’t have to make these decisions. Are we correct in doing what we’re doing? I don’t know. I don’t think anyone knows. But we felt as a group that this works best under the circumstances and now we move forward.”
Other schools are hoping to follow suit soon with school committee approval. Pioneer Valley Regional School will ask its school committee for approval Thursday at its scheduled meeting, as will Mahar Regional School. Greenfield’s next school committee meeting is Monday, and fall sports are on the docket there, while Athol’s next scheduled meeting isn’t until Sept. 16. Mohawk Trail Regional High School also has its next meeting set for next month.
“We’re in a situation that we have to get approval from our school committee, so that’s our next step,” Athol AD Dan Bevis said. “We’re waiting to see what comes from the sport modifications. They want to limit travel so we’ll have to stay within our region. A lot of it depends on what other schools are doing. Anything we can offer has to be approved by the school committee.”
While schools opening in a remote learning setting are required to receive school committee approval before playing any fall sports, the MIAA isn’t requiring that same approval for schools beginning in a hybrid model. Frontier Regional and Franklin County Technical School both fall under the latter category.
Frontier assistant principal Scott Dredge said that he expects his school to work in concert with the MIAA and the school district in order to put something in place that benefits the student-athletes in South Deerfield.
“I’m pretty confident with our athletic directors in (Franklin County), that they’ll work really hard together to put some sort of competition in place,” offered Dredge. “The thing that encourages me about playing high school sports during this is that schools have control over the safety measures. We’re a public school. We can’t afford to screw that up. I think this setting would be safer than any other option for playing sports, extra-curricular activities, etc.”
At Franklin Tech, Athletic Director Joe Gamache said he’s making sure communication regarding fall sports remains open within his district.
“The state guidelines say we don’t technically need (school committee) approval but we have worked with our administration to come up with an idea for playing sports,” he said. “We’ll keep our school committee in the loop and make sure they are comfortable with the decision.”
That won’t be known for certain until state modifications are approved, but locally, expect golf and cross country to look very similar to the past. Cross country will likely have more staggered starting lines, and time recording may be a bit different as well. Golf should look pretty similar, with a few modifications to ensure social distancing from the moment a team steps off the bus.
Speaking of busses, there will be limits and restrictions for travel. Sports approved for competition will be varsity only, with limits on the number of players who can travel for away games.
Field hockey will see the most significant modifications of the three sports. Contact plays on the field will be limited, such as penalty corners, but again, the full scope of the sport won’t be known until official state modifications are released.
Franklin County ADs are currently being tasked with creating schedules for the three sports, with games to begin no sooner than Oct. 1. Practices can begin as early as Sept. 18, according to the MIAA. Field hockey is expected to play an 8-10 game season, while golf matches and cross country meets are also expected to take place throughout the week. The schedules will be staggered, with the idea that each sport will play on specific days — field hockey on Tuesdays and Fridays, golf on Mondays and Thursdays, cross country on Tuesdays. Wednesday is expected to be a day where no games will be played, keeping in line with the educational plans set forth by districts using hybrid learning models.
As for spectators at games and meets, that remains an unknown. In keeping with the state’s current limit of 50 people in a single enclosed outdoor space, fans will be either extremely limited, or not allowed at all. That measure will be decided at a later date.
While the framework is beginning to take shape, Graves said that everything is subject to change, due to the evolving state of COVID-19.
“We’ll continue to evaluate going forward,” he said. “If conditions change, we’ll base everything on recommendations from the state agencies. We’ll monitor the situation going forward to make sure everything we do is done safely.”