Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Hyde: Broward delays fall sports
Although the Florida High School Athletic Association Board of Directors voted to maintain the current athletics calendar, the Broward County Athletic Association announced Tuesday that fall practices would be delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Despite [the FHSAA’s] announcement that practices start this Monday July 27th for Fall Sports, the BCAA membership remains united to stay home, safe and healthy until further notice,” the BCAA tweeted. “We will always put all of our student-athletes, coaches, volunteers and school personnels (sic) safety first.”
Palm Beach County District athletic manager Valerie Miyares did not say whether practices would be delayed but said the Palm Beach County School Board would vote on a new school start date Wednesday, which would influence the decision.
“The District’s priority is the health and safety of our students and staff,” Miyares wrote in an email. “The start date of school is one, of many, factors to consider as the District moves forward with reopening plans.”
American Heritage, Chaminade-Madonna and University School, which are not members of the BCAA, will also push back the start of fall practices, according to American Heritage athletic director Karen Stearns, ChaminadeMadonna AD Matt Bishop and the University School Twitter account.
“We are erring on the side of caution and not holding official fall sports practices/tryouts until we can safely do so with 100% certainty,” Bishop wrote in an email. “We will allow student-athletes to condition in groups at 10 or fewer persons while continuing to practice social distancing.
“We are not going to have students condition on consecutive days either in order to keep the number of bodies on campus low. We are doing what we can to keep our students safe. Obviously everyone wants to get back to sports as we know it, but for us we want to keep our student-athletes and coaches safe, first and foremost.”
Stearns wrote: “While we are looking at several options for our fall athletic teams, we will be postponing the July 27th start date until we can fully evaluate all plans to determine the safest protocols we feel may best protect all of our student-athletes and coaches.”
Orange County, Seminole County, Osceola County and Hillsborough County also announced they would push back the start of fall practices.
Cardinal Gibbons football coach Matt DuBuc, Fort Lauderdale football coach Richard Dunbar and St. Thomas Aquinas coach Roger Harriott said they supported the BCAA’s decision to push the start of fall practices back.
“Football’s very, very, very important to all of us, and we want to get back to play as soon as we can,” DuBuc said. “But we’re going to obviously make sure we do it the right way for the student-athletes.”
After hearing from the chairperson of the FHSAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, the FHSAA board voted 10-5 to maintain the athletic calendar as it is.
The motion allows for teams that are unable to play by an undetermined date to opt out of the FHSAA state series, making them ineligible for the state title games.
The FHSAA will help coordinate schedules for regular-season games if they choose to pull out of the state series, and teams will be allowed to keep playing regular-season games through the conclusion of the state series, which ends Dec. 12.
“It’s unfortunate that some counties will not be able to take advantage of the July 27 start date given their current situation regarding percent positive in COVID-19 cases,” Harriott said. “However, this is understandable and each district should make these decisions based on the data from their local communities in order to keep their student-athletes safe.”
The board members who voted in favor of this measure came from areas less severely impacted by the coronavirus: Three members were from Leon County, while there was one member each from Citrus, Gulf, Highlands, Jefferson, Lake and Sumter counties.
Two members of the board who voted against the measure were from MiamiDade, the hardest-hit county in the state. One was from Brevard County, one was from Hillsborough County and one was from Pinellas County.
The SMAC recommended that the FHSAA delay the start of the football and girls volleyball seasons, deeming those sports as “high risk” for the spread of the coronavirus.
“It is our stance that return to competition for the high-risk sports of football and volleyball is not medically safe,” said Maynard, who is a physician at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.
Dunbar said he disagreed with the state’s choice to keep the July 27 start date.
“All you can go off of is data,” Dunbar said. “Let the data tell you which way to go or the other.
“The decision by the state to say, ‘Yeah, we’re just going to move forward with a July 27th date to open things up’ — I disagree.”
DuBuc said he was surprised the Board of Directors did not enact the recommendations the SMAC made.
“I’m pretty shocked,” DuBuc said. “They were pretty adamant about we’re not ready to return to play, and after she was done, they really never went back to the data from the [SMAC].
“I think what they’re doing in Gainesville is following what the governor says: I want kids to play sports and I want kids back in school. We all want that, but we also know that we’re probably, today, not ready for that.
“Could we be in another two weeks from now or a month from now? I certainly hope so.”