There will be an MIAA fall athletic season.
On Wednesday morning, the MIAA Board of Directors put the finishing touches on a four-month saga between multiple agencies and approved a 2020-2021 athletic year, ratifying all 10 of the MIAA COVID-19 Task Force’s recommendations including a start to the fall season on Sept. 18.
Each recommendation was presented by Task Force co-chairs Duxbury athletic director Thom Holdgate and St. John’s Prep principal Dr. Keith Crowley.
In accordance with guidelines released by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), only sports categorized as low or moderate-risk by the EEA will be allowed to compete this fall. Moderate-risk sports field hockey, soccer, girls volleyball, and swimming will have to make the proper modifications to try to eliminate deliberate and intermittent contact.
The Board of Directors gave the individual MIAA Sport Committees of those respective sports the responsibility of making those modifications. Modifications are due to the Task Force on August 25th and high-risk sports competitive cheer, football, and unified basketball will move to the ‘floating’ fourth season wedged between winter and spring.
Those high-risk sports are allowed to practice as long as they honor EEA guidelines.
“The kids just want to play, and I think that this plan that has been into place allows every kid the chance to do that,” Lowell athletic director Dave Lezinski said. “This is due to a lot of people who have put in a lot of work and we as athletic directors just cannot thank them enough for all that they have done to let this happen.”
The athletic calendar, recommended by the Task Force and approved by the Board of Directors, sets the fall season from Sept. 18 to Nov. 20, the winter season from Nov. 30 to Feb 21, the floating “fall II” season from Feb. 22 through April 25, and the spring season from April 26 through July 3. There are no MIAA sponsored tournaments for the fall season.
The plan recommended by the Task Force and approved by the Board of Directors lends incredible flexibility to districts. Districts who are unable to play one of the moderate-risk sports in the fall, or unable to compete at all because they are classified as ‘red’ by the Department of Public Health with regards to the rate of COVID-10 average daily cases per 100,000 people, are allowed to transition those sports into the ‘fall II’ season. Additionally, schools are allowed to manipulate the athletic calendar with approval from their District Athletic Committee (DAC). The permission given to DACs to manipulate the calendar is due to sports that may need to shut down, and also because some sports in ‘fall II’ may not be able to be played in late February due to field conditions.
Four other notable recommendations from the Task Force passed the BOD. First, after much discussion, the BOD by a 13-7 margin voted to allow out of season coaching from September 18, 2020 through July 3, 2021 as approved by the school principal. The most controversial of the recommendations, the proposal to allow coaches to interact with student-athletes was met by opposition from a handful of board members including most notably Westboro principal Brain Callaghan who raised concerns over students having to pick between sports. Holdgate and Cambridge Rindge & Latin athletic director Tom Arria spoke passionately in favor of the proposal pushing it across the finish line.
“We just had a whole spring season where kids did not get with their coaches,” Arria said. “We do not know what this winter will look like. If we can get some kids together with coaches — to shoot some free throws or hit a baseball — I think that’s really important.”
The BOD voted unanimously to allow any school that has a sport shut down in the fall after the season begins the opportunity to file a request to the DAC to allow for that sport to take place again in the “fall II” season. Finally, the BOD unanimously approved that student-athletes may participate in all four seasons during the 2020-2021 year opening the door for kids to play a low or moderate-risk sport in the fall, and then partake in football, competitive cheer, or unified basketball in the floating season.
The Board has encouraged all schools participating in fall sports to make every effort they can to only schedule within their league or region.
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August 20, 2020 at 05:18AM
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MIAA to allow low- to moderate-risk sports in fall - Sentinel & Enterprise
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