Decision time coming for fall prep sports

The sand has about run out of the hourglass.

In terms of the high school sports season, zero hour is on the doorstep.

It’s decision time.

For the past days, weeks and months — depending on your point of view — a decision on the fall sports season in Ohio has been mulled over, contemplated, hypothesized and forecasted.

Sometime in the next handful of days, we’re going to know.

Is there going to be a fall high school sports season in Ohio?

Will it be normal? Will it be abbreviated? What kind of provisions will be in place?

Sources say the Ohio High School Athletic Association and the office of Gov. Mike DeWine, likely in conjunction with the Ohio Department of Health, have been meeting this weekend to discuss how — and if — a fall sports season will happen in Ohio this year with the novel coronavirus still hanging over the heads of the state and the nation.

To this point, the OHSAA has been firm in it’s plan to begin the fall sports season as regularly scheduled on Aug. 1. This coming Saturday.

In early July, the OHSAA and DeWine’s office announced their #IWantASeason campaign, championing measures to diminish the coronavirus, such as wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and using hand sanitizer — measures considered by medical experts to as the best combative measures.

Truth be known, it would have been nice for those officials to have such a sense of urgency earlier than four weeks from the scheduled start of the season. But that’s water under the bridge now. Nothing we can do about it.

DeWine then announced a statewide mandatory mask mandate beginning on July 23 at 6 p.m.

That mandate is a few days old. So a date on whether or not that mandate is having the desired effect in repelling COVID-19 likely isn’t available yet.

So where does that leave us?

What are the options as Aug. 1 draws closer?

What will DeWine and the OHSAA decide this weekend and reveal?

Here are the three primary options:

1, Suspending all fall sports until Jan. 1.

The Ohio Athletic Conference and the North Coast Athletic Conference both went this route earlier this week when they announced this move.

Though not ideal, that option is easier to do in college than in high school because most colleges don’t have multi-sport athletes. Colleges might have an easier time cramming fall, winter and spring sports seasons into a January-through-June time frame than high schools.

I’m not sure how likely this option is. Consider it relatively low.

2, Flip-flopping this fall’s sports with next spring’s sports.

At first glance, this seems like the easiest solution. It’s easier to social distance in baseball, softball, tennis and track than it is to do so in football and volleyball (and yes I know there are more sports involved than those).

A few problems with that, though:

• This move would take fall sports more out of the crosshairs of COVID-19 and place spring sports back in the danger zone for the second time in less than four months. Spring sports could potentially lose two seasons in a span of one year. Ouch.

• You’d telling spring sports, ‘Hey, your season starts on Saturday. Get ready and formulate your schedule right now.” (A little more notice would have been nice.)

• If football season were to start in, say, late March (that is, if an abbreviated winter season ends at that time), by time playoffs finish up, it’s mid-to-late June. Players would be asked to return a few weeks later to start up the 2021 season Aug. 1. That’s a very physical-tasking timeline.

• Forget Division I (and some Division II) scholarship players playing. Once they sign their letters of intent in November or February, they’re not likely to risk their college careers to play high school football in April. Many graduate early and start college classes in January, anyway.

Additionally, to this point, the OHSAA has said flip-flopping spring and fall sports isn’t an option.

That doesn’t mean they might change their mind. Still, considering their previous stance on this and the ramifications of such, consider this a low-end option, too.

3, Just call off fall sports.

This would be a surprise. Especially since the #IWantASeason drive and DeWine’s mask mandate are so recent, data on whether or not those are working might not be available yet.

This option would be considered low at this point. It could happen eventually, but not likely this week.

4, Go for it Aug. 1 and see what happens. This is possible.

In the past few weeks, the OHSAA has released a 38-page list of guidelines to ensure — or at least help — a return of fall sports as regularly scheduled on Aug. 1.

Included are sport-bysport listing of suggested guidelines that could make sports in full as possible.

However, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District announced this week that there would be no fall sports for its schools while the entire district goes to virtual (online) learning the first nine weeks.

Additionally, the Summit County Board of Health has recommended no fall sports before Oct. 1.

There are hot spots all around Ohio — not to mention the nation — of COVID-19. So there seems to be some peril with “just going for it” and starting Aug. 1 as planned.

It’s possible, though. If this does happen, there is a risk of pop-up outbreaks completely shutting things down for an undetermined length of time.

Which leads us to the most likely decision of the OHSAA and DeWine’s office this week:

5, Delaying the season a bit.

How long? Good question. Maybe Sept. 1. Perhaps Sept. 15.

But as previously stated, data from the mask mandate might not be available yet, since it only began a handful of days ago.

This option A) gives time for the mask mandate and #IWantASeason drive to (hopefully) produce desired results, while B) still giving student-athletes their fall season, even if it is abbreviated.

It’s a tough situation all the way around because while data shows that teenagers/children are less susceptible to the coronavirus, most everyone else around them in the sports season IS more in the danger zone because of age or pre-existing medical conditions.

Coaches, officials, game workers, parents — they are all more at risk than the kids playing the games. Some local leaders have already reported that some officials have backed off of officiating this fall so as to avoid COVID-19 risks.

What decision will be made remains to be seen. But it’s coming — and it’s coming soon.

PAUL DICICCO — FOR THE NEWSHERALD Mentor and Avon players vie for the ball during their Sept. 9, 2019, match at Mentor.