Fall sports conditioning can resume

The CIAC Board of Control drafted a modified plan for the fall sports season Sunday evening to submit to the Connecticut Department of Health for review. And, while that review happens, fall sports teams can now resume conditioning practices.

The CIAC Board of Control did decide, however, that if any fall sport winds up canceled this season, it will not be made up in the spring or during any other season.

Glenn Lungarini, the CIAC’s executive director, said in-person conditioning for fall sports can resume on Monday. It had been on pause since Aug. 14.

Individual school districts have final say on whether conditioning resumes at their schools Monday.

The official start of fall sports practice was pushed back to Saturday, Aug. 29 at Friday’s CIAC Board of Control meeting, in order to buy time to come up with this modified plan for the DPH to review. All sports are only allowed to conduct practices in cohorts of 10.

The CIAC and DPH met for more than two hours on Thursday but the DPH stood by its original recommendation that all fall sports should be paused until two weeks after schools had a chance to return to classes and/or that “high risk” sports like football and volleyball should be moved to spring.

But now the spring option for any sports appears off the table as the CIAC continues to negotiate how to conduct the fall season under the DPH’s guidelines.

Football was scheduled to begin cohort training on

Aug. 17 and all other sports set to follow on Aug. 27, which was reaffirmed by a unanimous vote by the CIAC’s Board of Control on August 12.

But in a letter to the CIAC released the following day, DPH acting commissioner Deidre S. Gifford made her recommendation. In response, the CIAC announced a week-long sports conditioning moratorium so it could confer with the DPH on how it should proceed. The delay kick-started another round of anxiety across the state as the wait began anew.