The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
WINTER PAUSED AT LORAIN, IN LC8
Less than 24 hours before the winter sports season was set to begin for several teams in Lorain County, it was paused.
Amid rising coronavirus numbers in Ohio, Lorain announced its decision to postpone its winter contact sports Nov. 20, until Nov. 24. The Lorain County League announced it was pausing athletics until Dec. 7.
In a statement, Lorain announced it was postponing “all contact sports contests” including girls basketball games scheduled for Nov. 21 and 23. The announcement comes on a day in which Ohio set another record for daily coronavirus cases with 8,808.
“How long the pause lasts remains to be seen,” Lorain athletic director Bryan Koury said. “We will have some internal conversations come next week and decide the best course of action. The only game we had next week was (Nov. 23), and then from there we go into Thanksgiving break where we don’t have any games scheduled. So it’s a good time to have that conversation.”
Others in Lorain’s conference, the Lake Erie League, have begun to postpone the start to their winter seasons after a stay-at-home order was issued in Cuyahoga County. One has yet to be announced in Lorain County.
LEL members Garfield Heights, Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights and Bedford have all postponed their athletics, with Garfield Heights’ pause lasting until Jan. 4.
Home to seven schools in The Morning Journal’s coverage area, the Lorain County League was set to open its girls basketball season Nov. 20, before announcing its pause.
After a meeting between LC8 superintendents and the Lorain County Public Health Department on the morning of Nov. 20, the league decided it was in
the best interest of its student-athletes and coaches to pause athletics.
Although Lorain county has yet to order a stay-athome order, it was recently declared to be approaching level four on Ohio’s health advisory system.
“That ’ s really what started driving this decision,” Brookside athletic director Chris Adkins said. “So when the superintendents were done with the health department, they were contacting us so we set up a Zoom call to talk through it.”
The move to Level 4 would impose no new restrictions on the county by the state. But it could lead the way for a new stay-athome order.
Games postponed by the LC8 are just that: Postponed. Adkins and Columbia athletic director Jeff Jump made clear the league is not planning on canceling games or the season.
“Every athletic director wants to get the numbers down so we can have sports, and we’re hoping this pause brings the numbers down
so we can play everything,” Jump said. “We’re not going to cancel games; we’ve postponed these games and are going to reschedule them. We’re hoping to still get a full winter sports season in.”
Columbia was set to open its girls basketball season Nov. 20 against Independence.
Elsewhere in the county, a girls basketball game between Elyria and Vermilion which was set for Nov. 20 was postponed by the Pioneers. Vermilion’s season
will continue for now with a game against North Ridgeville set for Nov. 21.
Elyria has yet to make an announcement on if it will follow suit with the LC8 and Lorain in pausing all athletics.
Three conferences with area teams have yet to announce postponements, the Southwestern Conference, the Sandusky Bay Conference and the Great Lakes Conference. The SWC and SBC have basketball games scheduled for Nov. 21 that have yet to be postponed.