CAMILLUS, N.Y. (NCC News) – Major League sports are slowly making a come back. Working within a number of rules and guidelines, the professional athletes and teams have found a way to safely return to play. Many colleges and universities are still debating whether or not it is safe for the student-athletes to return to the field. What does that mean for high school athletics?
The New York State Public High School Athletic Association created a COVID-19 Task Force. This task force is dedicated to creating guidelines for schools’ athletic departments to follow. Currently at a standstill, this task force is waiting for updates from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Right now, the only definitive change has been pushing back the fall season start date from Aug. 24th to Sep. 21st.
Mark Burns, the West Genesee High School athletic director, anticipates all sports to occur during the regular spring season. This pushes all fall sports, and the beginning of spring sports to start after Jan. 1st. The task force has come up with six different scenarios, one of them being pushing sports back to the spring.
“That’s one of them that at least allows all three seasons to be held, might be short, but at least we’re not kicking a season now,” says Burns.
Another guideline under discussion is who these teams will be playing. Upholding the rule currently in place, no schools will participate in out of conference games. To stay within the shortened season, no state or regional play-offs will occur.
“You might see some local championships, maybe a league championship,” says Burns. With some creative scheduling, he won’t discount schools seeing a sectional tournament.
New York public high schools are awaiting more direction from Governor Cuomo and the task force before things move forward.
