New dates scheduled for Sweet Sixteens. Will Jefferson County schools take part?
The dates for Kentucky’s boys’ and girls’ state high school basketball tournaments have been set and it looks like teams from Jefferson County Schools will at last get their chance to play and try to make them.
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association set the Boys’ Sweet 16 for March 31 to April 3 in Rupp Arena, a four-day event culminated by the playing of the semifinals and finals on the same day, Saturday, April 3 due to Easter. The KHSAA noted the state tournament had been formatted this way for several years prior to the semifinals and finals being played on separate days starting in 2013.
The Girls’ Sweet 16 will be April 7-10 in Rupp and also be over four days to match the boys’ event.
The 2020 girls’ event was interrupted and later canceled amid the first round and the boys’ event never got started last year in response to the threat posed by COVID-19.
This year’s basketball seasons got off to a later start and will finish a bit later amid the pandemic, which continues to threaten even as vaccines have begun to be distributed across the state.
While there have been dozens of basketball game cancellations since the season started on Jan. 4, most games are being played despite the rate of spread being shown on the state’s COVID-19 incidence rate map that shows nearly all of Kentucky’s 120 counties in a “critical” or “red” status.
Most school districts, including Fayette County, limit attendance only to immediate family members with no gate sales.
Attendance for the Sweet 16s will be limited to 15 percent of Rupp Arena’s capacity in order to maintain proper social distancing for attendees’ safety, the KHSAA said.
“We know that there are many who would like to see things resume full-speed ahead immediately, but that is neither responsible nor practical right now. This is the same situation our university partners and friends have found themselves in this season, so it isn’t all that unexpected,” said KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett.
“Ever since the 2020 events were shut down and ultimately canceled, we have all hoped for the 2021 tournaments to be a renewal and rebirth. Unfortunately, that timeline isn’t feasible right now. We will work with our partners at Rupp Arena, the City of Lexington, and various health entities to maximize the opportunities for this year’s event and ensure an optimal experience for the participating teams and members of their community.”
The KHSAA Board of Control meets again Thursday to discuss the seasons and other issues. In addition to basketball, winter sports include wrestling, bowling, swimming/diving, cheer and dance.
JCPS OKs athletics
The Jefferson County Public Schools Board of Education on Tuesday voted 5-2 in favor of allowing its winter sports teams to begin practicing immediately and begin competing on Feb. 1.
The district, which has some of the most highly regarded boys’ and girls’ basketball teams in the state, remained a holdout over school officials’ concerns about the rate of community spread of the virus despite the KHSAA’s decision to allow districts that wanted to play to begin on Jan. 4.
While there have been other districts, such as Boyle County, which also delayed winter athletics, most districts have begun play. Cancellations that have occurred over the ensuing weeks have been due to COVID-19 contacts within the team or because of an opponent’s contacts, but a number of teams, such as Henry Clay’s girls’ team, have been able to begin or resume play after an isolation period.
Jefferson’s two dissenting board members argued against play given the severity of the crisis, but other board members sided with allowing the players, coaches and parents to assume the risks.
“These children are still going to be out in the community; they’re still going to be mingling with each other,” board member James Craig was quoted by the Courier Journal as saying in the meeting. “The JCPS board, standing alone, has not been able to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the community. … It’s not fair for these poor students, our most disenfranchised students, to be the only ones shouldering this burden.”
Jefferson County includes Herald-Leader boys’ preseason No. 1 Male and H-L girls’ preseason No. 1 Butler. They and the other Jefferson teams will have two weeks of practice beginning Wednesday to prepare for a six-week regular season and a postseason that will begin March 15.
