Massachusetts High School Fall Athletics Delayed

MANSFIELD, MA — The fall high school sports season has been delayed — with fingers crossed it will happen at all — after the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Board of Directors on Tuesday voted to unanimously to push the start of the season to Sept. 14.

While the delay is only a couple of weeks from when fall high school sports would typically ramp up in the year, the recommendation is subject to the state allowing contact sports like football in phase 3 of the state's reopening, and whether socially distanced sports like cross country and golf can take place amid the uncertain status of in-person classes. Girls volleyball and some girls swimming and diving programs are the two indoor sports that traditionally take place in the fall.

The state surprised organizers of some sports earlier this month when phase 3 guidelines allowed for lesser-contact sports such as baseball, softball, tennis and golf to proceed with competitions, but restricted "higher-risk" sports, such as football and lacrosse, to small workouts and drills.

Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito have said that the summer sports guidelines will be reviewed ahead of the fall sports guidelines, which are expected to be released in the next two weeks.

Until then, the MIAA will work on recommendations for how sports could proceed should remote learning be necessary for part of the upcoming school year, recommendations for how kindergarten through high school sports will look over the whole school year, and develop safety guidelines should some or all sports be allowed to proceed on Sept. 14 or later.

The state on March 12 canceled the winter sports season before the state championships with the final games being at Worcester State University. The MIAA then delayed the start of the spring season several times before eventually canceling it when Gov. Baker announced schools would remain closed to in-classroom learning through the end of the school year.

In June, high schools took the first small step back toward organized athletics when limited, socially distanced drills and conditioning workouts were conducted.

"You can take the sports away from the athlete but you can't take the athlete out of the person," Bishop Feehan Athletic Director Christian Schatz told Patch on June 17. "Whether they are home working out on their own, or in the backyard with their neighbors and friends, they are always athletes. The feeling (that) morning made them feel that much more like they were doing the stuff they feel normal doing."

Still, Oliver Ames Athletic Director Bill Matthews admitted to Patch that day the road from a few sprints in the football field to a full schedule of fall athletics was going to be a long and complicated one that remains very rocky two months later.

"It's an interesting challenge and very frustrating in a way," Matthews said. "We have a group of very experienced guys and women who have been meeting, and have come up with a lot of creative ideas of what things might look like. But right now it's all just spit balling. Trying to predict what it's going to look like in the fall is like playing pin the tail on the donkey because you just don't know."

Related Patch Coverage: Athletes Take First Small Steps Back On The Fields In MA

MA Coronavirus: 'Disheartening' Call Made To Cancel Spring Sports

Coronavirus: MA Cancels State Basketball, Hockey Championships

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