High school sports in Florida have been officially approved to resume this fall. The Florida High School Athletic Association voted Friday to allow member schools to begin their seasons on Aug. 24, despite the daily number of new cases of coronavirus in the state remaining in the thousands.
Nearly 800 schools are part of the association. The fall season consists of bowling, cross country, football, golf, swimming and diving, and girls’ volleyball. As part of the approval for the season, coaches will have to make a “COVID waiver form” available to the schools.
Florida has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University.
On Friday, the Florida Department of Health reported 6,218 new cases of the virus and 228 new deaths. There have been more than 557,300 reported cases and more than 9,100 deaths so far. The majority of the cases came from direct contact with someone else who had contracted the disease, according to state data.
In the past two weeks, the state reported that there were 8,339 cases of coronavirus among children under 18 years of age. The most affected age group within this category were high school students, 14 to 17, with more than 3,000 cases.
Coaches who are part of the association will also be required to take a COVID-19 training course through the National Federation of Colleges.
A video on the course details page says students should not share athletic towels, clothing, shoes or water bottles. It also recommends that coaches keep a record of all persons present, and potentially require that student temperatures be taken into account. Any person with symptoms of fever or cold within a 24 hour period would not be allowed to participate in sports.
The association said that this season, schools will not have a minimum match limit to be eligible for State Series play. Schools must complete them by September 18 for the series and can form their own regional schedule upon approval by the association, according to the FHSAA announcement.
District tournaments for fall sports are set to begin as early as October 12, for volleyball and golf, and last until mid-December, according to the association.
High school football season began on Thursday in Utah with what turned out to be first match in the country since the coronavirus pandemic began. Herriman High School filled the stands with 25% capacity, with dedicated and socially distant seats and mandatory face masks.
.
