Virginia Pilot – The Virginia High School League presented three options for the return of high school sports – none of which included football in fall – but delayed a decision on the options until July 27. The decision was made Wednesday during a VHSL Executive Committee meeting. The three options included:
- Holding the high school sports season as they are scheduled. In this scenario, only cross country and golf would be allowed to compete this fall.
- Switching fall sports and spring sports. In this scenario, all the sports would be able to compete.
- Condensing all three seasons. In this model, the winter season would be first and run from Dec. 14 through Feb. 20, fall sports would run from Feb. 15 through May 1 and spring sports would run from April 12 until June 26.
The VHSL, which governs the state’s more than 300 public high schools, hasn’t held any competition since the Class 2 state championship basketball games on March 12. The spring sports season was canceled March 20 and on May 7 the league announced the conclusion to the 2019-20 season.
The VHSL canceled offseason and summer activities on May 15. The league’s reopening process began June 11 after the governor announced his school reopening plans. Schools are allowed to start offseason practices and activities after submitting plans outlining compliance with the Virginia Department of Health and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s mitigation strategies.
Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Hampton had approved plans at the start of this week. While there was the possibility to have competition in Phase 3 of reopening, The current restrictions, which require 10-feet of social distancing, eliminates the possibility of having one-on-one contact sports. Last month, the committee pushed off a decision on the fall sports season and asked members to consider alternatives to a traditional high school sports schedule.
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