Syracuse, NY – The New York State Public High School Athletic Association is considering various possibilities as it tries to discover if school sports can recover from its coronavirus hiatus and have a fall season.
The NYSPHAA coronavirus task force held its second meeting of the summer on Tuesday morning. Executive Director Robert Zayas said his group expects to receive guidance from Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Department of Education in mid-July, and then start making decisions about the fall in late that month or early August.
Fall sports are scheduled to begin on August 24. Zayas estimates that schools will need at least six weeks to prepare for the next school year.
“Right now, I think we have to be patient and we have to see what the orientation will be,” said Zayas. “I think the guidance of the state department of education and the governor’s office is critical in how schools will be able to open and how athletics will fit that perspective.”
The working group is preparing for various plans, depending on when the state says so. Possibilities include, but are not limited to:
- Schools open for in-person learning, including sports participation.
- Schools open with hybrid education (combination of face-to-face and virtual learning), including sports participation.
- Schools only offer distance education (virtual education), including sports participation.
- Schools open with hybrid education (combination of face-to-face and virtual learning), not including athletic participation at the beginning of the school year.
- Schools only offer distance education and do not include athletic participation at the beginning of the school year.
- There are regional differences in start dates and learning platforms.
The working group is finalizing the proposals and plans to release the document to the NYSPHSAA membership by the end of the week in an effort to obtain comments.
“At the high school athletic association we are committed to finding a way to provide participation opportunities for all student athletes in all sports in the coming school year,” said Zayas. “We are working every day with the membership, with our 11 section executive directors, with the superintendents, the state department of education, the health department, and the governor’s office to try to make that happen.”
No date has been set for the next meeting of the working group.
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Lindsay Kramer is a reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard and syracuse.com. Do you have a comment or idea for a story? She can be contacted by email at [email protected].
