CIAC soccer, field hockey, girls volleyball to start earlier in 2024
CIAC FOOTBALL COVERAGE
Some fall high school sports in Connecticut will begin their seasons a bit earlier starting with the 2024 season.
In an effort to avoid teams playing three games in the opening week of state tournaments, preseason practices for boys and girls soccer, field hockey and girls volleyball will begin a few days earlier next summer.
Practice for those four sports will begin on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. Practices for those sports had begun on a Thursday the last several seasons. The regular season will begin the day after Labor Day, Sept. 3.
This will enable the regular season to end sooner and start those CIAC fall state tournaments earlier in order to space out the tournament over 2 1⁄2 weeks instead of just two weeks.
“There has always been a lot of contention over the fact that teams had to play three games in that first week (of the CIAC tournament) and five games in two weeks,” said Gregg Simon, the CIAC associate executive director. “We felt a great way to be able to remedy that situation was to start a little bit earlier and then finish in a way so we could play the first round of tournaments the Friday and Saturday of the prior week.”
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This past fall, preseason practice began Aug. 24 with the first day competition on Sept. 7. The last day for regular-season games to count was Nov. 2 and playdown games for all four sports began on Nov. 4, with the first round starting Nov. 6.
In the fall of 2024, the last day for games to count
will be Oct. 28, the CIAC playdowns begin Oct. 30 and the CIAC opening round either begins Oct. 31 or Nov. 1. The CIAC state championship finals will still be held the third weekend of November.
This also will mean league tournament play for those sports will take place sooner.
The proposal, approved this fall by the CIAC Board of Control, was submitted by the SouthWest Conference.
“There were complaints about playing three games in a week, that it was not what’s best for student-athletes at that time of year when games are close and the athletes are playing at the highest level,” SWC commissioner Mark Berkowitz said. “It made sense.”