Full-contact high school football remains canceled in Connecticut for the fall; CIAC will consider moving season

Shawn McFarland, Hartford Courant
·2 min read

Full-contact high school football remains canceled in Connecticut, though the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference said it will consider allowing competition later in the year, the organization announced Wednesday.

“The CIAC Board of Control reaffirmed its September 3 decision to cancel full contact football for the 2020-2021 school year,” the CIAC said in a statement. “This decision was made in alignment with the Connecticut Department of Public Health’s recommendation that football is a high-risk sport and should not be played this fall.”

The CIAC originally announced it would cancel full-contact football games on Sept. 3, though it met with state officials last Friday to present a proposal in an effort to allow full-contact football with modifications. The DPH, which back in August deemed football unsafe to play in the fall, did not change its stance, and recommended the CIAC postpone the season, or seek moderate- to low-risk alternatives for the fall.

The CIAC’s board of control, which met Wednesday morning, said it will “consider allowing competition at a later time for a sport that cannot hold its regularly scheduled season, such as football, provided it does not negatively impact spring sports.”

Despite recommendations from the DPH and Governor Ned Lamont to postpone the season, the CIAC had previously been reluctant to do so. CIAC executive director Glenn Lungarini said that if the COVID-19 metrics are not considered safe for football now, there’s no guarantee that they would be any better in the spring.

Additionally, Lungarini said, moving football to the spring could create challenges for multi-sport athletes, and the risk of overuse injuries would be higher if two football seasons were held in the same calendar year.

Shawn McFarland can be reached at smcfarland@courant.com.

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