Task force wrestles with comeback from COVID-19
South Florida administrators expressed fear that schools from Broward, MiamiDade and Palm Beach could be left behind, but a newly formed task force heard Tuesday that Florida’s high school sports governing body still plans for football teams and others in fall sports to start playing games in mid-August.
“The governor [Ron DeSantis] and commissioner of education [Richard Corcoran] are very optimistic about schools opening as scheduled in the fall,” said George Tomyn, executive director of the Florida High School Athletic Association. “I’m also remaining optimistic. At this moment in time, our staff is counting on a fall sports schedule that has already been published.”
The FHSAA lists Monday, July 27, just more than a month away, as the start date for practices. Preseason play is on its calendar for Aug. 12-15, with regular season openers for football and other fall sports pegged for the week of Aug. 20.
Tomyn’s remarks, which came in the early stages of the first videoconference meeting for the FHSAA Fall Sports Task Force, are consistent with what he has said since the association canceled spring sports playoffs on April 20 due to the coronavirus outbreak. But the FHSAA’s traditional time
frame may be way off target for some South Florida teams.
“Here in Miami-Dade, just as in Broward and Palm Beach, we’re still not able to get into our buildings,” said Hialeah Gardens athletic director Carlos Ochoa. “It looks very unlikely we’ll be able to start on time.”
Many schools across the state that were shut down in mid-March due to COVID-19 reopened campuses this month for workouts with restrictions that include social distancing and sanitation measures. But that is not yet an option for schools in the Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach areas. Task force members from those counties said they are at a disadvantage.
“Our kids would not have the weight training and conditioning that other people [get],” Broward County athletics director Rocky Gillis said. “I think that is a real concern.”
But others said returning teenagers to a sense of normalcy that includes supervision by coaches and interaction with teammates should happen as soon as it deemed safe in their communities.
“If it is safe to come back I would want kids to come back as soon as they could. They want to come back,” said Allison Kirby, principal of Jones High School in Orlando, which is scheduled to resume oncampus sports workouts on July 6 as approved by Orange County Public Schools.
Volusia County also announced July 6 as its return to training date. Teams in Seminole County were cleared to work out two weeks ago. Osceola and Lake began summer workouts last week. Some private schools, including Foundation Academy of Winter Garden, have held workouts since June 1.
Palm Beach schools were tentatively set to resume sports conditioning July 6. But they learned Monday that their return to training date is postponed with concerns mounting about a surge in COVID-19 numbers. Athletic director Pam Romero of Park Vista High School in Lake Worth said Palm Beach campuses are likely to remain off limits until at least late July, which might mean postponing the start of games until after Labor Day in September.
Tomyn has repeatedly said the FHSAA intends to follow the lead of DeSantis and leave many decisions to the 67 public school districts and individual private schools.
“As an organization, we can’t create a solution that is one size fits all,” said Jacob Oliva, the state Department of Education representative on the FHSAA’s board of directors. “We want those decisions to be driven and determined at the local level.”
Tomyn did acknowledge that fall sports state championships are not a certainty.
“I’m not so sure that we’re going to be able to have that this year in the traditional format as in the past,” he said of FHSAA finals.
The association’s priority Tomyn said, is to offer sports programs that are “as safe and as good as we can have.”
Other key topics in Tuesday’s discussion included:
The FHSAA has no current plan to require a facemask for every athlete — leaving that as a local decision.
A push by Tampa Plant assistant principal Lauren Otero, who soon will become president of the FHSAA board of directors, to survey all member school principals and headmasters on their plans and concerns. The FHSAA’s sports medicine advisory committee will take that on.
Playing games without spectators, or with a limited number of fans, could cripple high schools financially. “Bearing the expense of football but not getting money coming in, we’re not going to be able to afford anything for our schools,” said Mark Rosenbalm, coordinator of athletics for Collier County Schools in Southwest Florida. “Football usually pays for all of our [sports] programs.”
Some school districts could restrict outof-county travel, and the FHSAA championship state series could be eliminated in favor of regional playoffs. “Yes, we’ve discussed a lot of those things,” Tomyn said. “I just think it’s way too premature to talk about something like that. We can be creative when we get to that point.”
Shifting the start of fall sports back was discussed. “Moving fall [sports] impacts the winter which in turn impacts the spring,” Tomyn said. “That’s why we’re very comfortable in staying exactly where we are right now.”
Coaches are concerned that MaxPreps power rankings, which are now used to determine at-large playoff berths and seeding for district and region tournaments, will be skewed if some teams are forced to start later than others and play significantly fewer games. “If teams are not able to schedule in Week 1 we’re not going to punish them,” Tomyn said. “We are prepared to work with schools in individual circumstances.”
Officials who referee games are worried about contracting the coronavirus. John Scarpino, a task force member representing Brevard County’s Mid Coast Officials Association, asked that the FHSAA create statemandated protocols for schools that assure the health and well-being of referees.
Regarding specific fall sports Tomyn said bowling, cross country, golf and swimming and diving all could safely be contested “with some adjustments.” Girls volleyball and football will take more consideration he said.
The task force is scheduled to meet again Wednesday, July 1, at 9 a.m.