Low, medium risk fall sports can play
But wedge season likely for high risk athletics like football, cheer
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has given fall sports the go-ahead.
Tuesday evening, DESE Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley announced in accordance with the MIAA that districts may conduct sports classified as low or medium-risk by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs during the 2020-21 athletic year. The DESE guidance is pending ratification by the MIAA Board of Directors.
The MIAA Board of Directors, slated to meet this morning, has already voted to accept any guidelines released by the EEA and DESE as it pertains to the 2020-21 athletic year. All moderate-risk sports, which for the fall are field hockey, soccer, swimming, and girls volleyball, must meet the minimum modifications as set out by the EEA to compete. Football, competitive cheer, and unified basketball — currently classified as high-risk sports by the EEA — may practice as long as they meet the EEA cohort modifications.
“Working in close consultation with a variety of of stakeholders and our medical advisors and based on the Youth and Adult Amateur Sports Guidance recently provided by the (EEA), the MIAA and DESE have collaborated to provide the following modified sports schedule for school year 2020-21 and guidance for sports participation for students who are learning remotely,” the statement read.
Most notably, the release from DESE sets guidelines for schools that are beginning the school year with a remote model. Schools that currently reside in a “red” district as classified by the Department of Public Health (DPH) with regards to the rate of COVID-19 average daily cases per 100,000 people, and as a result are having their students learn remote at the start of the season, must postpone their entire fall season, including practices, until the floating “wedge” season later in the athletic calendar.
Districts, however, who are currently designated as “yellow,” “green,” or are unshaded and are still choosing to begin the year remotely may have athletics as long as it’s approved by their school committee.
The MIAA is allowed to develop a calendar to check in on a school’s eligibility throughout the athletic season.
Within their statement is an athletic calendar that DESE and the MIAA COVID-19 Task Force agreed to when they met on Monday afternoon. While the statement does not name each of the MIAA COVID-19 Task Force’s recommendations, the approval of an athletic season will allow the Task Force to go forward to the MIAA Board of Directors with their list when the Board of Directors convenes this morning.
The DESE athletic calendar states that the fall season will begin on Sept. 18 while the MIAA is allowed to come up with the start and end dates for the remaining three seasons — winter, the “floating season,” and spring. The floating season is expected to be used for football, unified basketball and competitive cheer, currently classified as “high-risk” by the EEA, and for schools that only offered remote learning in the fall and as a result could not participate in athletics.