High school sports moved back til at least Aug. 24
Four days after voting to allow fall sports practice to begin on the scheduled date of Monday, July 27, the Florida High School Athletic Association voted to pause fall sports practice until Aug. 24.
As part of the new plan, the FHSAA will have an in-person board meeting between Aug. 10 to Aug. 17 to review findings from the executive committees, including the FHSAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC).
Schools may continue to conduct summer conditioning workouts until Aug. 24.
The first potential football game could be held during the week of Sept. 7 or Sept. 11.
It was the only vote taken during the 3-plus hour meeting after a 5-hour marathon meeting Monday.
The board went in with two action items: The SMAC report that virtually was ignored Monday and the return-to-participation guide, which was not discussed because of the action taken.
At Monday’s meeting FHSAA Executive Director George Tomyn recommended that the official start of fall sports begin July 27.
But after much negative feedback, the FHSAA board decided to meet again Thursday to reconsider Monday’s actions.
After long, drawn-out discussions, mostly about the SMAC report, Doug Dodd of Citrus County made a motion to “temporarily delay the start of fall sports until Aug. 24 and direct the executive director to work with the sports medicine advisory committee and other advisory boards to prepare a recommendation for the start of fall sports at an in-person Aug. 17 meeting of the board of directors.”
The motion was amended to the week of Aug. 10 to Aug. 17.
It was seconded by Lee County’s Chris Patricca, who withdrew an earlier motion of pausing all sports.
The idea was to wait for all the new information collected by the SMAC committee.
Originally, the plan was to wait for schools to begin in-class sessions and use the data from the first week or two of school to determine when to begin fall sports. But with the start dates fluctuating around the state, the board decided instead to rely on up-to-date COVID-19 information.
“When we see the data and see the trends, hopefully the SMAC committee is going to get together again and talk about all these issues, too,” Dodd said. “We’ll have a much better picture and idea of how to go forward.”
The vote, taken 2 hours, 54 minutes into the 3:15 meeting, passed 11-4.
With the information gathered, it will be determined at the next meeting whether or not schools will begin with fall practice on Aug. 24.
Earlier discussion suggested fall practice could begin after the coronavirus COVID-19 positivity rate fell below 5% for 28 days.
An early discussion had football and volleyball, the two sports deemed most dangerous to play by the SMAC report, moving to the winter or spring, but that did not gain any traction.
There was talk that cross country, swimming and diving and golf would be safe enough to begin on or close to as scheduled, but all the fall sports were lumped together.
All three counties in the area, based on guidance from their county leaders, came up with different starting dates for the start of fall sports practice: Manatee County on Sept. 7 with no participation in the state series, Sarasota County on Aug. 10 with participation in the state series and Charlotte County on Aug. 17 with participation in the state series.
Area counties have not passed much beyond Phase 1 of their summer workout plans. Charlotte County student-athletes were the only ones permitted to workout inside and in a weight room.
Manatee County took this past week off from conditioning because of the impending two FHSAA board meetings.
The board actions has Manatee County director of athletics Jason Montgomery reconsidering some plans.
“We’ll probably work under the assumption that everything will start on the 24th,” Montgomery said. “And see what the FHSAA does the week from the 10th to 17th. As we know things change greatly.”
As far as reconsidering competing in the state series, Montgomery said, “Absolutely, we’ll look at it. A lot of it depending on how they set it up and what we do. I’m interested to see what the comprehensive plan the FHSAA comes up with looks like. We’re willing to look at whatever they come back with.”
FHSAA board chairman Lauren Otero of Tampa Plant High took her own survey, polling public schools in 67 counties, receiving response from 396 schools in 47 counties. Of the 396, more than 90 percent or 359 schools said they were not starting July 27.
The FHSAA was trying to come up with a blanket return-to-play plan and starting date, despite the objections of schools in the Panhandle that claim they can begin Monday, and schools in Miami-Dade County that have not been inside a building since March and have not begun summer workouts.
A somewhat agitated Tomyn said, “this board has already approved the state date for the opportunity to begin fall sports on July 27, and made it a local decision that the school and the district makes that decision on whether to start or not start.
“What you are voting on is to change what you voted on Monday to postpone fall sports until the 24th.”
“Safety has to be the key to everything that comes our way at our next meeting,” Patricca said.
“The virus is not going away, but we have to proceed in a safe manner,” said Florida High boys basketball coach Charlie Ward, a Heisman Trophy winner.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: High school sports moved back til at least Aug. 24
