While the Arizona Interscholastic Association announced Friday that high school football season will start the second week of September, local athletic directors have yet to discuss canceling the entire season.
“We are having talks of when we will return, but the conversation is mainly focusing on what that return will look like,” Tucson Unified School District athletic director Dee-Dee Wheeler said. “We haven’t had any conversations regarding canceling.”
Salpointe Catholic High School athletic director Phil Gruensfelder also said that he’s been working on a variety of ways to hold fall competitions, while also making it clear “we aren’t afraid to shut (athletics) down,” if the COVID-19 situation in Arizona doesn’t improve.
Those conversations on what a return will look like received some clarity as AIA’s plan outlined the recommended start dates for each fall sport program. Most notably, football games can begin the week of Sept. 7 which would likely mean a season opener on Sept. 11. Cross country, swimming and diving girls volleyball and small-school soccer can also start Sept. 7.
The Arizona Department of Health Services is in favor of AIA’s proposed return to play protocols.
Whether or not these dates hold remains to be seen, but all schools would need between three and four weeks of organized practice prior to the first competition date per AIA bylaws, executive director David Hines said in a video chat with AZPreps365 earlier this month.
Athletic directors are bracing for the issue of when schools are permitted to bring back students to campuses for in-person learning as it will affect when full-team organized practices can take shape.
With classroom education at schools closed until Aug. 17 at the earliest, both Gruensfelder and Wheeler say it wouldn’t make sense to bring student-athletes back for practices or competitions if schools aren’t ruled safe to open.
“It’s difficult to make a decision when we’re told our school is not an environment where we can bring students on campus, but yet we’re saying our teams of student-athletes can come after school hours,” Gruensfelder said. “How can you determine a safe environment, whether it be on campus or at practice?”
Wheeler thinks that a blended option in which there’s a combination of both online and in-person classes could make it feasible for a phased reopening of student-athlete activities on campuses.
“Phase one for us would be to have five to eight student-athletes on campus at a time,” she said.
Both trains of thought are in-line with what Hines said in his video call.
“As long as school is in session and you can go in person, then we can put together different modifications that we think we can be able to have a sport and compete,” Hines said.
“If there is no school, that takes us right out of the mix.”
Hines also noted school districts are encouraged to pay attention to their local county health departments and guidelines when working to formulate their plans for bringing student-athletes back.
Wheeler said that has been TUSD’s approach.
“We want to see some type of steady numbers showing that there are no increases,” she said. “We want to make sure that we’re not providing another platform that helps increase those number of cases. We’re monitoring those things and seeing what comes from Pima County Department of Health and the CDC.”
Amphitheater School District released a 25-page document this week which contained information on their plan for reopening schools, a portion of which covered athletics stating that any return to play would abide by local health guidelines.
Of note, their outline said that ‘it is impossible to eliminate all risk of COVID-19’ when returning to athletics. If competitions are allowed to take place, Amphi said that such competitions could have protocols that limit the admittance of family spectators and other fans.
Prior to the AIA’s announcement Friday, Hines had said that “everything is on the table” when making adjustments to the fall sports schedule. For football, there’s still a chance that the usual 10 regular-season games are played, though that number may get trimmed to eight.
Gruensfelder said he isn’t sure if it’s more likely he’ll have to shorten the fall schedule or get creative trying to play a full one, but he’s “ready to adapt” when the time comes.
Hines stated, “Our goal is to have some semblance of a season in every sport that we have, if at all possible.”
