TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Hillsborough County School District Superintendent Addison Davis announced Hillsborough County Public Schools will push back the athletics start date by two weeks to protect the health and safety of student-athletes and staff.
The Florida High School Athletic Association executive board voted 10-to-5 in favor of maintaining the state’s July 27th start for high school fall sports, including football on Monday night.
Opinions on the contentious issue were mixed.
“We’re asking kids to social distance in a school, then we put them on an athletic field and we say, well we really don’t care about that anymore, we’re going to hit everybody or we’re going to do this,” said Mark Schusterman, an FHSAA board member, during the meeting.
Late Tuesday, the Hillsborough County superintendent weighed in.
“I recognize how crucial athletics and extracurricular activities are to not only student- athletes, but the school communities overall. While resuming these activities is an important step toward normalcy on our campuses, our district will do so in a guarded manner as we navigate the continuing impact this pandemic has on our local community. This extra time will also allow school administrators to work with athletic directors to build a timeline that allows for a start date of August 10th,” said Superintendent Addison Davis.
At this time student-athletes will continue conditioning on school campuses at this time with increased safety measures such as capping the number of participants to groups of 40 at one time, social distancing, prohibiting the use of locker rooms as well as discontinuing community water jugs and towels, district officials explained in an email.
Superintendent Davis has also recommended delaying the start date of the academic year to August 24. The Hillsborough County School Board will vote on any changes to the academic calendar at a special meeting this Thursday.
Krista Maddock has two high school boys who play sports.
“Well, I believe that bringing teams back together in a way that makes sense for that team is very healthy,” she said.
But, in a COVID-19 world, there is some trepedation.
“I think that delaying the season or saying maybe we can push it out because we’re in Florida because the weather is flexible that way, I think is smart, given that this year isn’t going to look like any other year we’ve seen before,” the mother of three said.
8 On Your Side received the following statement from FHSAA:
Last night, the FHSAA Board of Directors met in regards to the start of the fall sports season. During this meeting, the board voted 10-5 in favor of starting the fall sports season on July 27th, as scheduled. Participation on this date is optional as it is simply the first allowable date to begin. Each school and school district should only begin participation when it is best for that school district or school. This motion was passed with the provisions that the FHSAA staff will determine a date in which schools must declare participation for the FHSAA State Series and that if a school elects to opt out of the State Series, the school be allowed to schedule additional regular season contests. The Board will meet again at a to-be-determined date to discuss the recommendations provided by the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee. Due to the current pandemic, it is expected that all member schools follow Federal, State, Local and CDC recommendations and guidelines for the welfare of all involved.
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