Osceola schools delay start of fall sports
Osceola County has postponed the start of its football and girls volleyball seasons to Sept. 7 and pulled those programs from the Florida High School Athletic Association state playoff system due to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a post Thursday morning on the school district’s website, football and volleyball will proceed this fall as part of a yet-to-be determined “Central Florida Coalition” comprised of other area school districts.
That coalition could include seven or more counties, including Orange County, according to primetimepreps.com.
Osceola’s other fall sports — boys and girls cross country, golf, swimming and bowling — were initially postponed until Aug. 10, but that date was pushed back again Thursday night when the FHSAA board of directors reversed course and voted to delay the start of the season to no earlier than Aug. 24.
Unlike football and volleyball, each of those fall sports in Osceola County will continue as planned with FHSAA postseason competition, which is scheduled to begin in October.
The FHSAA had voted just three days earlier to keep its calendar intact, meaning Monday would have been the first official day of fall sports practices across the state.
“Crazy times cause for crazy situations,” Osceola High football coach Doug Nichols said. “We’ll just line up and play football, and that’s the most important thing. These senior kids need a season. They need something.”
Summer conditioning workouts for Osceola County teams will continue to take place three days a week leading up to those preseason dates.
Seminole County postponed the start of preseason practices for all its fall sports teams until Aug. 31. Orange County postponed fall sports indefinitely late Monday night and Volusia County announced Thursday that it had set a tentative start date of Aug. 17, but that was also pushed back following the FHSAA meeting.
Lake County administrators will meet virtually Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. to discuss options for the start of fall sports for its member schools.
The Osceola County announcement states that fall sports season calendars “are fluid based on the safety of student-athletes thus subject to change,” but there was some concern that a decision to postpone was made too soon by the district.
“None of us coaches were even spoken to about it,” said an Osceola County volleyball coach, who asked to remain anonymous. “I don’t understand how we’re roped in with football. They’re outside and we’re inside, they’re contact and we’re non-contact. The only similarity is that we’re both identified as a team sport.”
Osceola County athletic director Ryan Adams said the school district was unable to consult every coach before making a decision and that the schedule change falls in line with recommendations made Monday by the FHSAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC) during an emergency board of directors meeting. That report included an emphasis on delaying the starts for football and volleyball as “high-risk” sports where social distancing is difficult to implement.
“Being in the state series is something that every team strives for, but the concern when we talked to coaches was that they were adamant about wanting games because they just want their kids to have a season,” said Adams. “It’s a risk right now staying in the state series, because if that gets canceled then the season is over. But now if we have to stop [during the season], we could still potentially continue.”
The regular season football schedule for Osceola schools will be played over the span of nine weeks from Sept. 21 to Nov. 16. The final week in November and first week in December, when FHSAA state semifinal and small-school state championship games are scheduled to be played, have been denoted as “bonus weeks” by the school district for additional competition.
Bonus weeks were described as “an opportunity to provide regional post-season events, such as Regional championship caliber tournaments, matches, events, and bowl games as conditions allow.”
Those additional games would be played between schools that choose to be included in the proposed coalition, which would stretch east along the Interstate 4 corridor into Tampa.
Large-class FHSAA football state title games are scheduled for Dec. 9-12 at a location to be determined.
Volleyball’s regular season will run from Sept. 21 through Nov. 2 with a “bonus week” beginning Monday, Nov. 9. FHSAA volleyball state finals are scheduled for Nov. 13-14 in Fort Myers.
“The delay in our athletic schedules for fall sports will allow schools to safely open, and still allow our student-athletes and coaches to complete their seasons with safety precautions in place as conditions allow,” Osceola School District Superintendent Dr. Debra Pace said in a statement.