Friday night frights: Big schools to start late
high school football will be played this fall, although for the state’s biggest schools it will be delayed by approximately one month, with their state title games pushed to January.
Attendance will be limited to 50 percent, with social distancing enforced and masks required under Gov. Greg Abbott’s current guidelines for public gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.
The University Interscholastic League, which governs extracurricular activities in public schools, pushed the start of the season back to Sept. 24 for Class 6A and 5A schools, the two largest classificiations. Class 6A schools have enrollments of 2,200 and above. Class 5A enrollTexas
ments are between 1,230 and 2,219.
The UIL kept the calendar the same for smaller schools, which are primarily in smaller cities and towns. For those schools, the season starts Aug. 27, and their state championships remain Dec. 16-19 in Arlington.
“Today is a beginning of what the season could look like,” Friendswood football coach Robert Koopmann said, “but you can’t bet on this a week at a time, let alone in six weeks.”
The delay could last longer and include more schools if the COVID-19 health crisis gets worse, UIL deputy executive director Jamey Harrison told the Associated Press. He said Texas just didn’t want to take a fall season off the table as this point.
“The California model is still available to us,” Harrison said. “If conditions change that dictate us delaying further, we still have that as a possibility.”
On Monday, California pushed its fall sports back to the spring. Georgia delayed the start of its season by two weeks, but Florida announced it would stay on its schedule. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, just over one million players participated in 11-man football in 2018-19.
Texas has the nation’s highest participation in high school football with about 170,000 players, and Tuesday’s announcement delays the start of the season for about 500 schools.
Private schools in Texas had previously pushed back the starts of their seasons to Sept. 21 (Southwest Preparatory Conference) and Sept. 28 (TAPPS).
“I’m happy because we finally have some information to work with,” said North Shore football coach Jon Kay, whose team won the Class 6A Division I state championship in 2019 and 2018. “I think most of us were in the same boat. I didn’t need to have the right answer or good information. I just needed information. Just tell me what the rules are and what the dates are, and we’ll start organizing. Because at the end of the day, everybody’s in the same boat.”
The UIL’s decision to have different schedules for the larger schools (primarily in urban areas) and smaller schools creates problems for the Houston Independent School District, which has 24 schools in three classifications.
HISD said last week that sports would not start while the district was conducting virtual classes, currently scheduled through Oct. 19. An HISD spokesman confirmed Tuesday that the district’s plan remains the same on sports.
HISD’s Class 4A schools — Furr, Kashmere, North Forest, Scarborough, Washington, Wheatley, Worthing and Yates — are in a difficult spot. While other 4A schools are starting football season on time,
HISD’s 4A schools will be grounded through at least mid-October. The district certification deadline — when playoff teams must be determined — is Nov. 7, leaving just three weeks for a regular season.
Fort Bend ISD and Alief ISD, which have schools in Class 5A and 6A, also won’t play sports while offering online-only classes but could return in time for most of their season, which would run through Dec. 5.
Texas hasn’t played high schools sports since the boys’ state basketball tournament was shut down in early March. The UIL allowed schools to resume on-campus strength and conditioning workouts in June, but more than 200 schools at some point suspended those workouts amid the virus surge.
The UIL’s guidelines also include a reduction in paper ticketing, social distancing in entering the stadium, limiting media, and restrictions on concessions.
The atmosphere Texas high school football is so well-known for will be neutered.
“We’re allowed 50 percent capacity in the bleachers,” Koopmann said. “How do we determine who that 50 percent are? That’s a tough decision. It’s another instance of all those different things people are having to do in life right now.
“Everyone’s life is different, and our life will be different in football.”