COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio High School Athletic Association announced Friday afternoon that the Ohio Department of Health order allowing high school contact sports to compete against other schools if health requirements are met. has extended until July 22.
Ohio Lt. Governor Jon Husted announced the initial health order on July 7 that allowed different programs to compete in contact sports following health requirements through July 15.
“Lt. Gov. Husted emphasized that when this ‘trial’ order was issued, we all have a responsibility to continue to exercise safe practices to curb the spread of COVID-19,” wrote OHSAA Acting Executive Director Bob Goldring in a memo. to the members. schools Friday afternoon.
The extension would allow an extension for opposing schools to compete in seven-on-seven soccer practice, for example.
Practices, training, open gyms, and practice games within the team (within the same school program) are also allowed for contact sports.
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Goldring reiterated on Friday that the OHSAA office is moving forward with the normal start of the fall sports seasons, which means that official practice begins on August 1 with the series of postseason tournaments scheduled in 10 of those sports in late this autumn.
“We are committed to making progress on starting our fall sports on August 1 and hope that school-to-school competition in all sports will be allowed by that date,” Goldring wrote.
“As everyone has seen during this pandemic, those plans can be quickly changed or canceled as, like the governor’s office and all of you, our focus is on the health, safety and well-being of our student athletes, which is paramount to advance interscholastic athletics. “
OHSAA also said that its recommendation document for returning to play will be sent to member schools once it is approved by the governor’s office and the health department.
“Since March 12, each member school has undoubtedly developed its own health and safety guidelines to allow student athletes to train, condition and, in some cases, compete as they prepare for the upcoming interscholastic sports season,” wrote Goldring. .
“To that end, we have heard the membership loud and clear that recommendations are needed on the OHSAA Office’s return to play. Trust me, we have been working tirelessly to finalize that orientation, but we want to fully agree with the governor’s office and health department to ensure that what we provide does not conflict with current requirements, requests and other recommendations. “
OHSAA has 815 member high schools and 760 seventh through eighth grade schools in the association for this upcoming 2020-21 school year.
OHSAA represents more than 350,000 students competing in 26 sanctioned sports: 13 for boys and 13 for girls.
Ohio is the fourth largest state in sports participation in high school behind California, Texas and New York.
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