Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
High school games can start Sept. 4 statewide
Fall high school sports teams can begin playing games on Sept. 4, the Florida High School Athletic Association Board of Directors voted on Friday, going against recommendations from their medical advisors amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, that doesn’t mean mean Broward and Palm Beach County teams will be seeing the field soon.
Friday’s decision from the nonprofit group that governs high school sports in the state leaves local school districts with a few options:
They can start games on Sept. 4 — or even push back the start as late as Sept. 18 and still remain eligible for the state playoffs.
They can delay the start of the season past Sept. 18, but that would make their teams ineligible for the FHSAA state championships. They can take a much more dramatic step: Districts could leave the FHSAA entirely and form a local or regional athletic association, hosting their own championships after those districts believe it is safe to play.
The Sports Medicine Advisory Committee submitted a new report to the FHSAA Board of Directors on Wednesday, advocating for further delays to the season. The committee chairwoman, Dr. Jennifer Maynard of the Mayo Clinic, said the majority of the state does not meet the guidelines the group previously set to safely resume sports.
“We are improving in certain areas, and we are getting worse in certain areas,” Maynard said. “My fear, from a medical perspective, is until this virus is given the respect it deserves to quiet down, we,
by introducing sports, are just adding fuel to the fire.”
The medical advisors recommended several benchmarks for returning to play during the coronavirus pandemic. Those benchmarks are: a percent positive rate of new cases below 5 percent over a seven-day rolling average for at least 14 days; an effective reproduction number of under one for at least 14 days; and a downward trend in new cases per 100,000 people in a population over 14 days. The committee also recommended at least two weeks of practice time before the start of competition.
“If you think nobody in the state is ready to start, then how can you say we need to move forward, regardless?” Pahokee coach D.J. Boldin asked after Friday’s meeting. “Don’t get me wrong: Yes, I want a football season. I want a football season. But I want it at the right time.”
South Florida, which has been the state’s biggest coronavirus hotspot, will likely lag behind the parts of the state that decide to start practicing on Aug. 24.
“No, I do not [expect to start on Aug. 24],” Stranahan football coach Travis Harden said.
Attempts to reach officials at the Broward County Athletic Association and the Palm Beach County School District for comment were not successful Friday afternoon.
Under the plan the board of directors approved 11-5, the season would be 10 weeks long and schools will have the option to opt out of the state series without penalty.
Schools or school districts would need to decide whether they would participate in the state series — including the state championships — by Sept. 18, likely leaving the areas hardest hit by the coronavirus out of the state playoffs. Seven of the eight state football champions in 2019 were from Broward or Miami-Dade County.
“They put the state championships over the safety of the kids, which is unacceptable in my book,” Harden said. “I feel like we need to go away with the high school athletic association and come up with our own here in South Florida.”
The proposal allows teams eliminated from the state series or those that opt out to continue playing regular-season or exhibition games until the end of the state series on Dec. 12.
Several local coaches posted on social media following the vote, expressing their displeasure with the board’s decision.
“If you know anything about the history of the FHSAA and South Florida, It has never been one that has been favorable at all for South Florida in any event or any case,” Boldin said. “It has never been favorable for South Florida. I just feel today is another example of the FHSAA putting South Florida on the backburner and catering to the Panhandle or North Florida.”
Miami-Dade County Public Schools voted unanimously Wednesday to consider options to leave the FHSAA, and Miami-Dade School Board vice chair Dr. Steve Gallon told the Miami Herald that Friday’s vote reinforced his thinking on the organization.
“The 11-5 decision of the FHSAA, as well as the lengthy discussion, further confirm the importance of local authority and decision-making,” Gallon was quoted as saying. “Clearly, COVID-19 has revealed the significant regional differences that go into organizing, operating, and overseeing interscholastic sports across the state. It also reinforces and undergirds my previous position that for Miami-Dade and other south Florida districts, such organization, operation and oversight may be best served outside of the FHSAA and within a more regional, local and equitable structure.
“Any real, true state championship series that forfeits the inclusion of teams from South Florida would be anything but.”
Although some local coaches were disappointed by the board’s vote, many local players took to social media to celebrate getting an opportunity to play sooner rather than later, even though the final decision lies with the school districts.
“I’m definitely going to have a Zoom meeting with my players,” Harden said. ”All they hear and all they see is August 24th. … Like any kid [thinks], ‘Wow, they say we can start August 24th.’ They just want to play football. They’re not really caring about their safety — you may have one or two — but most of them just want to play football because they love the game. They have so much enthusiasm for the game. But now it’s our job, as coaches, to not only show it’s bigger than football but we have other moving parts to this whole thing. You’ve got to make sure everyone is safe, first and foremost.”
The board considered two other options for how to start the season in addition to the approved proposal. The two other proposals would have delayed the season further.
One of those plans, called Option 3A, would have delayed the start of the fall season until Dec. 11, with practices beginning on Nov. 30. It would have condensed the season into five weeks and also delayed the start of winter and spring sports, whose seasons would also be condensed. Option 3B was an altered version of Option 3A, which was discussed by the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee. Option 3B listed Oct. 23 as the start date for the season, with practices beginning Oct. 12.
The board also approved making a COVID-19-related waiver available for schools to use.
The FHSAA has deliberated for weeks on how to begin the fall sports season. On July 20, the board of directors voted to maintain the sports calendar and start fall practices as scheduled on July 27.
On July 23 the board met again and reversed course, delaying the start of fall practices until Aug. 24. Since then, the FHSAA and its advisory committees discussed multiple options for how to safely play during the coronavirus pandemic. The Football Advisory Committee preferred an Aug. 24 start, while a majority of the members of the Athletic Directors Advisory Committee preferred a delayed start, one that would begin games in December.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio have weighed in on high school sports, as well. DeSantis advocated for an August start on Tuesday, and Rubio submitted his own plan for a fall football season.