SC High School League not ready to cancel spring sports seasons
The S.C. Carolina High School League Executive Committee decided Monday that all public school spring sports in the state have been suspended until at least April 5.
The move was approved 17-0. The committee met via teleconference to talk about the next steps for spring sports if schools are back in session next month. For now, no spring seasons are canceled.
S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster announced Sunday afternoon that public schools will be closed through the end of March because of the coronavirus pandemic. It means spring sports such as soccer, tennis, golf, baseball, softball and lacrosse are completely on hold. Teams aren’t allowed to hold practices, meetings, conditioning and out-of-season workouts during the time away from school.
“We aren’t in a position now to cancel the season. Let’s see what happens,” SCHSL commissioner Jerome Singleton said Monday. “Our schools are going to follow what the governor says. The biggest thing is, we didn’t want to transport the virus into other communities.”
The SCHSL executive committee will meet again April 2 to re-evaluate things and discuss if and how spring sports can resume.
Singleton said that if schools are back in session by April 6, he would give teams a few days after that for practice and conditioning before returning to games. He and SCHSL associate commissioners already are discussing playoff possibilities so championships can be held.
Singleton also didn’t rule out playing into June as along as schools were still in session.
“We need to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself for our student athletes to continue with some sort of normalcy,” Singleton said. “If school is going on in June and there is an opportunity to play sports, then we need to take advantage of that.”
This isn’t the first time sports have been suspended in the state recently. In 2018, Hurricane Florence wiped out a week of the fall season and an extra week was added to the year. Many schools, however, opted not to make up games that didn’t have region implications for them.
In 2015, the fall season was moved back because of the floods. In 2016, Hurricane Matthew forced the season to be pushed back two weeks with the state championships being held the same day as the Shrine Bowl.
“This is unprecedented times and ones we can’t predict or know when there is an end to,” Singleton said. “When a hurricane comes through, it is just a matter of recovering and put things back into place. This has too many moving parts to it, but our membership is used to challenges.”
While SCHSL officially made its decision Monday, the S.C. Independent Schools Association announced it suspended private school spring sports from March 15 until April 3. Ben Lippen High School in Columbia, a SCISA member, announced they will be out of school and have no sporting activities until April 17.
This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 1:23 PM.
