Although the governing body for high school sports in Ohio has a proposal for switching fall and spring sports for the 2020-21 school year, the PIAA hasn’t addressed the possibility yet.
Times Leader file photo
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A proposal by the governing body of Ohio high school sports could be a way around the COVID-19 pandemic for the fall season.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association proposal has been circulated via Twitter recently. It calls for flip-flopping several fall and spring sports.
Frank Majikes, the vice president of the PIAA Board of Directors and District 2 chairman, said nothing has been brought up about switching seasons. The first official day of fall sports practices is Aug. 17.
“I would say it’s too early for fall sports,” Majikes said. “There’s a board meeting, a virtual meeting, next Wednesday. Could it come up? Sure, we have 34 members on the committee. Somebody may bring it up.”
Majikes also warned of an unwanted consequence should the spring and fall sports seasons switch places. Spring athletes already lost a season. If the switch were to be made, they could lose another if the fall season runs into issues with COVID-19.
“There are too many unanswered questions,” Majikes said. “You can’t really speculate right now.”
Under the Ohio proposal, field hockey, golf and girls tennis will remain in the fall this coming school year. Cross country, football, soccer and volleyball would move to the spring.
Traditional Ohio spring sports — baseball, boys tennis, lacrosse, softball and track — would be shifted to the fall. Winter sports would not be affected. OHSAA’s next board of directors meeting is scheduled for June 10.
OHSAA executive director Jerry Snodgrass said in a Twitter post in late April “A reminder to all school administrators that any changes/updates to schedules, bylaw adjustments or regulations will always come directly from our office to you and not through any ‘reliable sources’.”
Snodgrass also told cleveland.com in late April that OHSAA is “planning for every case scenario that exists” and that includes shortening or delaying the fall season. The OHSAA website has no changes listed to its sports schedules for the 2020-21 school year.
A switch would put non-contact sports in the fall — except, arguably boys lacrosse — and contact sports in the spring. It’s something coaches in other states have pondered, although not on the governing body level.
“I looked into it and said, ‘Man, this makes sense,’ ” Killingly football coach Chad Neal told the Norwich Bulletin of Connecticut. “I’ve talked to some (football) coaches in the state and I have reached out to Harry Bellucci with the (Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference) football committee to possibly get something moving because I don’t think we want to wait until August to make a decision.”