ROANOKE, Va. – Sorry sports fans and athletes, you’ll need to wait a little while longer for high school sports to begin.
On Monday morning, the VHSL Executive Committee voted to not start any sports until mid-December, with the hopes that no individual sports will have to be canceled.
The plan, approved 34-1, was one of three options presented earlier this month for high school sports to happen in Virginia.
With this change here’s how the three seasons will look.
- Winter Sports - December 14 – February 20 (First Contest Date – December 28)
- Basketball, gymnastics, indoor track, swimming/diving and wrestling
- Fall Sports - February 15 – May 1 (First Contest Date – March 1)
- Cheerleading, cross country, field hockey, football, golf and volleyball
- Spring Sports - April 12 – June 26 (First Contest Date – April 26)
- Baseball, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis and track and field
This plan truncates seasons to about 60% of their original length.
For high-risk sports to be played, Virginia would need to have fewer coronavirus restrictions in place.
The other two plans would have either made no changes, causing there to be no football in the 2020-21 school year or flipped the fall and spring sports seasons.
Had the sports seasons been flipped, both boys and girls lacrosse and boys and girls soccer seasons would have been canceled.
The approved plan is the only one that gives a chance for every sport to be played.
The committee did discuss trying to have low-risk fall sports, cross country and golf be played; however, due to transportation and equity, they will happen with the other fall sports.