MIAA approves plan for high school sports, ADs react

Aug. 26, 2020 | The Reminder Publishing News Staff
chrism@thereminder.com

Boys cross country is among the sports approved for competition in the fall season by the MIAA Board of Directors.
Reminder Publishing file photo

WESTERN MASS. – The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s (MIAA) Board of Directors approved a plan submitted by the organization’s COVID-19 Task Force that will allow high school athletics to resume this fall.

The proposal, made jointly with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), called for four athletic seasons, starting with the fall from Sept. 18 to Nov. 20. The fall season includes sports such as soccer, gymnastics, field hockey, girls volleyball and golf.

However, football, along with fall cheerleading and unified basketball, will be moved to a “floating season” between the winter and spring seasons from Feb. 22 to April 25, 2021.

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) identified football, competitive cheer and basketball as high risk sports in its safety standards and guidance released on Aug. 17. In the meantime, participants in those sports may practice in accordance with EEA cohort conditions.   

The winter season will run from Nov. 30 to Feb. 21, 2021 and the spring season will commence April 26 and run through July 3.

The Board of Directors also agreed to allow athletes to participate in all four seasons.

The MIAA will not host a postseason. Locally, the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference has made no announcement on whether there were plans for regional tournaments.

“The recommendations before us may not meet everyone’s expectations, but they provide a real opportunity for our students to take part in high school athletics for the first time in months,” said MIAA President Jeff Granatino.

Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District Athletic Director Michael Roy explained to Reminder Publishing that there are still many unanswered questions regarding the athletic season.

“I am pleased that the MIAA released guidance that fall sports can happen with modifications. As for Minnechaug specifically, we will offer what we can this fall.

“Right now, the MIAA sport committees have been charged with developing individual sport guidelines all based on the EEA guidelines. Those are due to us by Sept. 1. So we are in a ‘wait and see’ mode. Other districts are not sure what they will be offering either, so there is really no new information and a lot of unanswered questions,” Roy said.

His number one goal with getting the fall sports season started, Roy said, is safety.

“My feeling is that a return to sports is critical for the social/emotional health as well as physical health of our students, so to do something this fall will be great. Our work is far from over and our number one goal will be to keep our student athletes and coaches as safe as possible this fall,” Roy said.

In East Longmeadow, East Longmeadow High School Principal Frank Paige presented “fall athletic options” to the School Committee on Aug. 24.

In the presentation, different sports were broken down into categories, levels one, two, and three. Level one indicates a sport that could take place with individual training and skill work, level two would consist of competitive practices in cohorts of 10 individuals or less, and level three would indicate that the sport would be able to compete against other schools with safety modifications in place to limit risk.

Level three fall sports, as described by the ELHS fall athletic options plan, includes boys and girls cross country, as well as golf. Three other sports that were described as level three sports in need of modifications, including masks and rules alterations, are field hockey, boys and girls soccer, and girls volleyball.

Cheerleading and football, however, are considered higher risk sports, and can only engage in level one activities during the fall sports season.

MIAA?guidelines and modifications to fall sports, again, according to the ELHS fall athletic options plan, explains that fall sports will have staggered starts, will eliminate deliberate contact, will minimize intermittent contact, and activity organizers must require facial coverings to be worn while engaged in an activity wherever possible.

According to the plan, there are two competition models being considered in East Longmeadow at this time. One, the interscholastic model, which consists of competitions against other schools in the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference (PVIAC). The other, a “town only” competition model, that is similar to a recreation department model where ELHS student-athletes only compete against ELHS student-athletes.

Both of said models include safety proposals, guidelines, modifications.

The East Longmeadow School Committee will be voting on an ELHS athletic model on Sept. 3.

Ryan Dunphy, supervisor of of Athletics, Physical Education, Health, and Intramurals for Westfield Public Schools, told Reminder Publishing he was encouraged that the MIAA is still leaving options open for not only the moderate risk fall sports to continue, but is also providing options that could allow sports currently identified as high risk to have a season at some point.

In the fall, Westfield High School typically offers football, field hockey, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls soccer, golf, girls gymnastics and cheer.

Westfield Technical Academy’s fall sports include boys and girls soccer, boys and girls cross country and golf.

When asked what the next steps are, Dunphy said he would wait for the MIAA Sport Committee’s recommendations regarding modifications that would allow Westfield to align with the EEA guidelines. At that point, he said he would work with the Superintendent’s Office, local Board of Health, and the School Committee to examine the the feasibility of playing this fall.

The School Committee was scheduled to discuss the athletics issue at its Aug. 26 meeting, after this issue went to press. More information will be in the Sept. 3 issue of The Reminder.

Gateway Regional Athletic Director Matthew Bonenfont said,  “What has been communicated in meetings and to the public is that the administration will revisit fall sports once we receive DESE’s approval to do.”

Bonenfont added when DESE came out with their statement last week, they seemed to be from what he was reading in sync with the MIAA. “To me, it looks like they have worked out the fall logistics,” he said.

When asked whether he liked the decision, Bonenfont said, “As a parent of an athlete, absolutely; as a coach, absolutely;  as an administrator, absolutely.”

Last year, Bonenfont coached junior varsity girls soccer, after being an assistant coach for nine years. Besides being AD, he also teaches physical education to grades 5-8.

Gateway only hosts cross country and soccer during the fall, two sports which are currently slated to be part of the fall sports season. Bonenfont said once Gateway receives formal notification from DESE, they will be setting up sports specific committees.  

“Once we receive all the guidance and we as a district do our homework, working with other school districts in our area, we’ll have a better grasp of what can actually go and what can’t go,” Bonenfont said, adding both sports would have to have some accommodations that are made.

Gateway is a part of the PVIAC and Bonenfont said both the boys and girls soccer play difficult Division 4 opponents.

Bonenfont noted that Gateway is reopening in a hybrid plan, with not all students starting in person learning, He said of the potential of starting practices by Sept. 18, “At that point, it’s going to go back to the local districts,” adding that any plan will also need School Committee approval.

“There are a lot of moving parts before anyone can say that sports is starting. I believe I can speak for the athletic directors that want to be back; want to be back on the fields. We all want normalcy,” Bonenfont said, adding, “I hope people don’t get too excited too quickly, and they don’t get disappointed if things go backwards.”

Reminder Publishing reached out to the Longmeadow and Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School athletic directors but had not received comment by press time.

Share this: