‘The wisest move.’ KHSAA votes to delay the start of high school basketball season.
Kentucky’s high school boys’ and girls’ basketball seasons will start later and be shorter than normal under a schedule approved Wednesday while the football postseason will continue as planned.
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association Board of Control voted to delay the first basketball tip-off until Jan. 4 amid concerns over the dramatic escalation of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. Those seasons had been set to begin Monday.
“I really can’t in clear conscience tell you that I think it’s a good idea for our member schools to start playing organized games, official games, this coming Monday,” KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett told the board during a more than four-hour work session in which board members discussed the implications of delaying basketball and the effects it would have on other sports moving forward.
In the last week, a number of school systems, including Fayette County Public Schools, had already moved to halt winter sports practices, most notably basketball, and delayed any possible start of games until after Thanksgiving, due to the increased concern over the spread of the virus.
In addition, many school systems following state recommendations regarding their county’s “critical” coronavirus status have not allowed their basketball teams to hold normal practices that would typically include scrimmages and game-like situations. A few haven’t even held tryouts yet.
Later Wednesday, Gov. Andy Beshear announced a number of new measures to attempt to slow the spread of the virus, including limits on indoor athletic training, such as sports team practices, through Dec. 13. He also ordered an end of in-person classroom instruction from Nov. 23 through Jan. 4 for middle schools and high schools.
There were 2,753 new COVID-19 cases announced Wednesday and 15 deaths. On Tuesday, Beshear announced 2,931 new COVID-19 cases, the third-highest number of cases for the state in a day, and 33 deaths, the highest number of deaths recorded in the nine months the state has been dealing with the virus.
Wednesday’s move by the KHSAA will shorten basketball’s regular season with state tournament dates at Rupp Arena targeted for the weeks of March 15 and March 22 pending details being worked out with the Central Bank Center. The KHSAA board will hold a special meeting next month to discuss those dates.
The KHSAA’s Jan. 4 start date will also apply to swimming and diving, wrestling and competitive cheer and dance.
Scott Chalk, head coach at Paul Laurence Dunbar and the director of the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches, said he had spoken with Tackett a number of times over the past few days and his membership has provided feedback about how to move forward. Chalk was not surprised by Wednesday’s developments.
“I think it was probably the wisest move,” Chalk said. “There are many schools, Jefferson County schools in particular, but there are many schools in all regions across the state that have hardly had any practice at all. So, there was really no way that we could start like we had originally planned.”
The possibility of playing a nearly full season with state tournaments to be held in late April instead of mid-March generated a lot of discussion Wednesday, but ultimately did not achieve a consensus over concerns that it would put a strain on multi-sport athletes who play spring sports and step on those seasons.
The delay of the basketball season also means there will not be the traditional holiday tournaments that typically bring some of the best teams in the state to Lexington and Louisville each year in an early test of their prowess. It is also unclear how the shortened regular-season schedule might affect midseason tournaments such as the boys’ and girls’ All “A” Classic events.
“It’s not ideal, but we kind of have to roll with the punches this year, because of the restrictions that COVID has put on us,” Chalk said. “I want to thank Commissioner Tackett for his efforts today in the meeting really trying to get the longest possible season that he could get for basketball and really explore some outside-the-box options. ...
“In the end, we’re going to have a shorter season than normal, but we’ll just have to make the best of them and try to do what we can as far as observing the best protocols and best practices to try to stay as healthy as possible and yet still give the kids an opportunity to play as much of the season as we possibly can.”
High school basketball became the first sport in Kentucky disrupted by the pandemic back in March when the Girls’ Sweet 16 shut down on the second day of play as government and health officials recommended sweeping changes to daily life in an attempt to get control of the virus that had already devastated many other countries. The KHSAA later canceled all of its spring sports — baseball, softball and track and field.
Committed to getting high school athletes back on the field, the KHSAA started its fall sports, including football, soccer and volleyball, later than normal and urged its member schools to follow health recommendations regarding masking, social distancing and fan attendance in an effort to keep playing.
Every fall sport but football completed its competitive seasons. Football has five weeks of playoffs left to go.
As COVID-19 cases have increased across Kentucky in recent weeks, more and more school districts have been reluctant to field teams against the state’s health recommendations. As of Wednesday, 19 football teams have opted to end their seasons rather than play in the playoffs.
Football kicking off
Despite these numbers and the growing concern, high school football’s postseason will continue with kickoffs set for Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week.
Tackett told the board his staff was comfortable moving forward with football.
“No. 1 it is outdoors,” Tackett said. “That is a huge advantage. Outdoor events have a huge advantage right now in battling the spread of this virus. … (State officials) have been very pleased with our mitigation strategy, … we were kind of out front with our health guidelines. Other states have copied them. We think that’s allowed us to have a season.”
The KHSAA anticipates more football teams might run into COVID-19 problems in the coming weeks. If any more teams back out in the first three rounds of the playoffs, their playoff spots will not be filled and those opponents will get byes into the next round.
But if a semifinals or finals team is forced to withdraw over COVID-19, a previous losing team will be offered the opportunity to fill out the bracket, Tackett said.
Tackett also confirmed that Kroger Field in Lexington will be maintained as the championship site for all six classes because that venue has a facilities plan for COVID-19 and its capacity allows the title games to be held with appropriate social distancing.
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 4:14 PM.
