Football scratched for fall
Published August 26, 2020
The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association officially voted for a revised high school athletic calendar during a virtual meeting held on Aug. 19.
Based on a recommendation from the MIAA COVID-19 Task Force, in addition to guidelines from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) the MIAA voted to push the start date of the fall season to Sept. 18.
The revised season schedule is: Sept. 18-Nov. 20: fall sports; Nov. 20-Feb.21: winter sports; Feb. 22-April 25: fall sports II (football, cheer, unified basketball), April 26-July 3: spring sports.
The task forced identified sports that they feel will be safe to play from Sept. 18 to Nov. 20 for the fall season which include boys’ and girls’ soccer, fall gymnastics, boys’ and girls’ cross country, field hockey, girls’ volleyball, swimming and diving, and golf.
“The kids are thrilled with opportunity to play this fall,” said Lynnfield boys’ soccer coach Brent Munroe.
Typical fall sports, football, cheerleading and unified basketball are scheduled for Feb. 22 to April 25 but they may be allowed to practice sooner. That decision is up to individual schools.
Schools will also have the ability to adjust dates with the approval of their District Athletic Committee which would allow flexibility if certain schools can’t play sports right away or have to postpone a season at some point. The board also voted to allow out of season coaching from Sept. 18 through July 3 as approved by a school principal.
The board voted to encourage schools to create a fall schedule within leagues or geographic regions. They also voted to allow student athletes to participate in all four seasons for the 2020-21 school year.
The board voted that there will be no fall MIAA sponsored tournaments. Districts/leagues can host their own. MIAA tournaments for the other seasons are to be determined.
All passed votes were unanimous except for the out of season coaching motion which passed 13-7.
“Obviously the coaches (Bill Wallace and Dylan Rizzo) and I are very excited to have a season ahead of us,” said LHS cross country coach Joe DiBiase. “The captains (Jen Miller, Megan Chann, John Astrofsky, Mike Madden and Mike Dreher) have been working hard all summer with the team to prepare and they are relieved that we will be able to safely hold practices and meets. Both teams are coming off great seasons last year and we are ready to go.”
Sport committees will come up with modifications to fit guidelines from the EEA report. According to the DESE report, “the MIAA will develop sport-specific modifications to meet the guidance from EEA for issuance prior to the start of each season.”
The fall season’s lower risk sports, as identified by the EEA, include swimming, cross country, gymnastics and golf. Soccer, field hockey and volleyball are in the moderate risk category which require modifications in order to practice and play games. The DESE report stated that both low and moderate risk sports can be played in the fall, “provided that the MIAA’s recommended sport-specific modifications meet the standards outlined in the EEA’s guidance.”
High risk winter and spring sports such as basketball, hockey, wrestling and boys’ lacrosse will continue to be evaluated through the year.
Participation for school districts planning on only remote learning will be based on their town or city’s average daily cases per 100,000 resident designation from the Department of Public Health. Districts in municipalities designated as “red” must postpone their entire fall season, including practices, until the floating season of Feb. 22 to April 25. There are currently no Cape Ann League schools in any red designations. Georgetown is in a yellow designation. Lynn, Saugus, Salem and Revere are some nearby communities that are currently in the red.
The MIAA will develop a timeline for looking at data prior to the start of the each season to determine which color-coded designation a district should fall into for the purposes of playing sports.
“It’s a little hard to know at this point how it will work out,” said Munroe. “The schedule is still up in the air without knowing which schools will be given the go ahead by the school committees but our group will be ready to play. I could not be more impressed with the commitment our group has shown all summer in doing everything possible to get ready in hopes of having a season.”
Cape Ann League administrators are currently working on schedules and modifications for the fall season.
