OHSAA sends out survey on fall sports

Athletic directors get chance to weigh in as fall season looms

A handful of days before the fall sports season is scheduled to begin, surveys are being sent throughout Ohio in order to determine when and how a fall high school sports season can be held in 2020 with the novel coronavirus at the forefront of conversation.

A number of area athletic directors have confirmed to The NewsHerald that the OHSAA sent out an urgent fall sports survey to administrators around the state.

Additionally, the Chagrin Valley Conference met via a virtual meeting on July 27 and agreed to formulate a survey of their own that is scheduled to be sent to the principals and superintendents of the league’s 22 member schools on July 28.

The surveys — both on the statewide level and on the local level — are aimed giving fall sports its best chance of happening with COVID-19 a major issue.

“The surveys are looking to get feedback on options and general feedback,” Mentor athletic director Jeff Cassella said. “We’re just seeing where everyone is at this point.”

The survey sent out by the OHSAA was forwarded to The News-Herald. It deals with a number of topics, including:

• What is your preference regarding your athletic program for both low/ non-contact sports and contact sports for the 2020-21 school year? The options are: begin all programs as planned, delay the start when/if conditions change, pursue a plan to flip some fall and spring sports, or cancel fall sports.

• If the fall seasons are shortened, what is your preference? Options are: full regular season with reduced tournaments, full regular season with full tournaments, reduced regular season and full tournaments, reduced regular season and reduced tournaments, or reduced regular season and no tournaments.

• Inquiries about summer workouts at schools and data on if anyone tested

positive for coronavirus during that time.

The survey also asks which OHSAA district each AD is from (in this case, Northeast).

Berkshire AD Brian Hiscox said there was no timeline listed for returning the survey, but there is no doubt time is of the essence.

“It’s absurd,” said Beachwood AD Ryan Peters. “I don’t quite understand how the OHSA A couldn’t get this to us (earlier). This could have been gotten to us four weeks ago and we’d be a lot further along.”

Another AD, who chose to remain anonymous, agreed, saying, “Why are they doing this now? This should have been done weeks ago and wasn’t. We’re running out of time — and fast.”

While the OHSAA was sending out a state-wide survey, the Chagrin Valley Conference was meeting to set up the logistics of sending out a survey of its own.

CVC commissioner Dr. Don Lewis said all 22 members of the league were represented in the virtual (online) meeting by either athletic director or principal.

“The athletic directors have decided to formulate a survey to be sent out to all CVC superintendents and principals — the voting body of the league,” Lewis said. “The survey will contain

a number of viable options that can be considered on how we will proceed.”

In light of that starting date, Lewis said data from member schools will be gathered quickly and disseminated in a survey form on July 28 — three days before fall sports are scheduled to begin.

“We had a lot of good discussion today,” Lewis said. “There were a lot of layers, like contact sports and noncontact sports. Golf and tennis are considered noncontact. They could go right now. Football?...

“We had information from all the health departments of the five counties that are included in the CVC,” Lewis continued. “All of them said to be cautious. Ashtabula County’s suggested not crossing county lines, but each said we need to be cautious.”

The CVC meeting on July 27 was the first league meeting since news broke late last week that the four league members from Ashtabula County — Geneva, Lakeside, Edgewood and Grand Valley — were considering playing only in-county games this season. Less than 24 hours after The News-Herald’s story was published, all four schools reaffirmed their intent to stay with the CVC.

“Everybody was in agreement

today that we need to be a cohesive league with our statement,” Lewis said. “We will come up with recommendations and mandates (via the survey) as a league. What those recommendations and mandates are we don’t know at this point. But we will have a league-wide protocol and recommendation.”

Said Perry AD T.J. Rockwell of the CVC meeting, “A lot of good ideas came out today. We’re exploring every option possible, and we’ll go from there.”

There is no word yet on if DeWine or the OHSAA will issue a statement or a mandate leading up to the Aug. 1 date. Most schools are anticipating starting fall practice on that day.

However, the Summit County Board of Health has recommended no fall sports until Oct. 1. And the Cleveland Metropolitan School District has announced there will be no fall sports the first nine weeks while students do their schoolwork online.

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted announced he will hold a discussion on Aug. 4 as reported by the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association, and football coaches will be part of it.

“No question, we are on a time crunch,” Lewis said. “We’ve got to get this done.”