UPDATED: ‘We are looking at having fall sports.’ Kentucky to have high school sports questions answered soon
Will there be high school sports this fall?
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association is expected to address that question as early as Friday at its next scheduled Board of Control meeting where members will likely hash out alternatives before declaring the next stages of reopening.
“We are looking at having fall sports,” KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett told the General Assembly’s Interim Joint Committee on Education on Tuesday. Tackett did not outline what measures will be discussed Friday, but said all options are on the table. “What that looks like could change just like the data related to the virus changes. We are more optimistic now than perhaps a few weeks ago where we see border states of Illinois and Indiana and our other neighbors have been able to do. We get a little pessimism when we see what’s going on in Tennessee.”
For the last couple of weeks, Kentucky high school teams have been able to conduct voluntary workouts under strict coronavirus guidelines that call for small groups, social distancing and daily health check-ins.
Players like those gathered at Lexington Christian Academy’s football workouts last week said they’ll do whatever is necessary if it means they could play.
“I’m just trying to stay optimistic,” said senior Will Vernon. “I mean, of course, I want to have a season but other people’s safety comes first. We don’t want people dying because we want to play football.”
The KHSAA has been following Centers for Disease Control and state guidelines for opening up, and its current measures don’t speak to dates past July 12. The KHSAA specifically swatted down a social media rumor last week about the possibility of switching baseball to fall and football to spring.
“To correct early misinformation, there is no proposal under consideration or upcoming vote to switch the FB and BA seasons,” the June 30 post from @KHSAA’s main Twitter account said. “The authors of the original tweet have retracted and any discussion of this type of move is not on any upcoming Board agenda for vote.”
If the current KHSAA calendar holds, most sports teams would begin practicing July 15. The first golf event would tee off July 31. Football could begin full-gear practice Aug. 1. Soccer is scheduled to start Aug. 10, volleyball and cross country on Aug. 17 and, finally, the first football kickoff would be Aug. 21.
That is a big “if.”
In Tennessee, the scheduled start of play has been moved back to at least Sept. 18 rather than its pre-COVID timeline and officials there are discussing options for an abbreviated football season. But Ohio high school athletics officials have said as recently as last week that they plan to keep their calendar on schedule. Indiana will as well. In Illinois, its athletic association recently approved the next phase of its COVID-19 guidelines, which OKs contact and seven-on-seven competitions this week.
“Well, we’re very concerned,” said LCA Coach Doug Charles. “I’ve told our youngsters we cannot let that enter into our minds. We just have to prepare with the knowledge that we have. And it’s a day-to-day cycle.”
Optimism about playing on schedule has been tempered by the recent reported rise in coronavirus cases across the country and the sporadic shutdowns of a few teams around the state due to COVID concerns.
“That was exactly as the plan was designed: Address issues at the local level and not necessarily (have) a state edict one way or another,” Tackett said Tuesday of the activity shutdowns in a few districts. “We will see Friday if the board feels that way (going forward).”
July 10 was to mark the first day football teams could put on helmets and that’s often followed by seven-on-seven competitions that allow teams to knock some rust off.
Woodford County was scheduled to host 25 to 30 teams this weekend for a seven-on-seven event, but had to cancel.
“We hate it, but we know it’s the times and, you know, you’ve got to deal with it,” said Woodford head coach and athletic director Dennis Johnson, who added the small-sided games are a way to get the competitive juices flowing.
“The biggest thing is competition,” Johnson said. “It’s not real football, but for those who throw the ball 60 times a game, it plays a part. For us, we run it most of the time, but still you get a chance to go out there and compete, the linebackers and DBs get a chance to run around and cover. I always think competition is a good thing.”
‘Very reassuring’
While football gets a lot of attention, other high school sports have been freed up for conditioning workouts since June 15, as well, including soccer, volleyball, basketball and more. Some districts, including Fayette County, held off their workouts until June 29.
Soccer has been the first sport to return to play internationally, albeit without fans. Foreign professional games are on TV almost daily. In the United States, the NWSL has played games at a singular site.
“Watching the German league and English league play is very reassuring because, although you don’t have any fans there, as far as I know, they are not making anybody sick by playing, you know. So, that’s all good,” said Coach Terry Quigley of defending girls’ 11th Region champion Lexington Catholic. “We have to be optimistic because there’s no reason not to be. We already saw the spring sports, they lost their season, so we know it’s a possibility.”
Another positive sign has been the discussion of schools resuming in-person classes this fall in some fashion. Fayette County recently sent out a survey mentioning three possible alternatives to get back on campus.
The summer workouts have offered a warm-up to how teams might operate. So far, coaches have only been allowed to work with players in groups of 10. LCA’s Charles organized his groups to include a variety of classes and positions so that if one group were to have a positive COVID test, the subsequent quarantine could be limited with hopes the rest of his roster could continue. LCA has daily temperature check-ins and surveys all its athletes, and none in any of its sports have reported any COVID contacts, said athletic trainer Cameron Deckett.
“We’re going to be prepared the best we can. If it’s spring, it’ll be spring. If it’s a seven-game schedule, it’ll be a seven-game schedule,” Charles said. “We saw what baseball went through. We saw what happened to the Sweet 16. And these are tough lessons for us coaches and youngsters. But these are life lessons and sometimes there’s things in life that happen that are just beyond our control.”
This story was originally published July 6, 2020 at 10:55 AM.
