By Duncan Nixon
Correspondent
On July 27, the Virginia High School League (VHSL) officials met and voted on a plan to carry forward with sports seasons in light of the corona virus threat. The VHSL is the decision making authority for all sports matters for public high schools in Virginia.
The VHSL had three options on the table and it voted overwhelmingly to adopt the most equitable and perhaps the most optimistic option. The Model 3 – Condensed interscholastic plan that was approved will not cancel any sports for the 2020-2021 year but will delay the start of any sports seasons until after Christmas. As it anticipates a shortened season for all sports, it could be viewed as the most equitable option. It could also be viewed as the most optimistic option, as it apparently assumes that the coronavirus will under control by December, so that it will be safe for students to engage in all sports, even high contact sports such as wrestling, by that time.
The condensed interscholastic plan provides for the winter season sports (i.e. basketball, gymnastics, indoor track and field, swim and dive and wrestling) to run from Dec. 14 -Feb. 20, with a first contest date of Dec.28.
The fall sports season will then follow the winter season. The sports of football, volleyball, golf, cross-country and cheer will have a season that starts on Feb. 15 and runs through May 1, with a first contest date of March 1.
The spring sports season will come last, as it normally does. Baseball, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis and track and field, and presumably field hockey, will have seasons starting on April 12 and running through June 26. The first contest date for the spring sports will be April 26.
Clearly scheduling for these shortened seasons will be a challenge. As seasons will overlap a little bit, there may be some pressure on multiple sport athletes to pick and choose where they will compete. At this time, it is not clear what post-season play for the most successful teams will look like, if it occurs at all.
