FAA aiming to hold full spring regular season

The Fairchester Athletic Association will attempt to hold as complete a regular season as possible this spring beginning in April.

The FAA announced that decision Monday. The league also noted that because of the later-thanusual start, there would be no league postseason in any sport.

“The April 10 start realistically leaves only so many weeks to play games,” said Hopkins athletic director Rocco DeMaio, also the league president. “To try to look ahead and think about playing a normal season, get every game in and also have a tournament without some sort of interruptions (like weather) didn’t seem feasible.”

Preseason practice has begun for some Fairchester teams, while others began on Monday. All the FAA teams take their spring vacation in March — some for two weeks — and normally graduate by late May.

There would be approxi Saturdays, mately seven weeks to complete a regular season and a postseason.

St. Luke’s athletic director Mike West said the league also had to take into account how the FAA is spread from New Haven County to New York state in addition to how teams are scheduling for the spring season.

“Playoffs present an entirely different challenge with the number of schools involved and the flexibility to schedule when some schools are only playing on others playing on Wednesday and Saturday and still others have more flexibility,” West said. “The opportunity to get a multi-round playoff structure in is a tough obstacle, so we had to choose what we were going to prioritize, and that was to have as complete a regular season as we can accomplish with the time frame we are working with.”

The hope is to complete the regular season in order to determine a league champion. If not, then a league champion will not be crowned.

The spring will be the fourth consecutive season the FAA did not hold a postseason, dating back to the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A number of league teams played a limited winter season schedule. West said St. Luke’s got in seven boys and girls basketball games and five hockey and squash contests each.

“To me, the winter season was a huge win. In hindsight, looking back, I don’t think any of us back in November thought we would have (what teams were able to get in),” West said.

Hopkins only had a couple of virtual co-ed swimming meets and some intersquad scrimmages this winter. So for Hopkins, which returns to school full-time April 5, having any kind of season is a huge step.

“Our kids are pumped. They’re excited, having fun

in practice,” DeMaio said. “It’s a real positive to get going this spring for all of our athletes.”

The majority of the FAA schools will begin regularseason play April 10. Among the spring schedules already online, Brunswick, an all-boys school, is opening up its baseball season April 1 and its lacrosse season April 2.

Brunswick will face Greens Farms in baseball April 7.