SC high school sports season unlikely to start on time after coastal district decision
One coastal school district is pushing back the start of summer workouts to August, a move that all but assures that South Carolina’s fall high school sports season won’t start on time.
Beaufort County School District announced Monday that workouts won’t begin until at least Aug. 10. The district originally hoped to start workouts July 20.
The first official date of public school practices around the state is July 31 with the first football games scheduled for Aug. 20. Most coaches and athletic directors around the state believe starting on time is unlikely at this point.
“We are supposed to play Wilson on Aug. 21 and I don’t think that happens,” Hilton Head High coach BJ Payne said. “We have to have time to get the kids ready. I haven’t seen my team since March. But we don’t even know if school will be open yet either. We have to figure that out. We have to do whatever it takes to protect the health and safety of students and faculty.”
South Carolina public schools got the go-ahead to begin summer workouts June 8. But since then, many districts have stopped or delayed the start of those activities because of the increase in new COVID-19 cases. Gray Collegiate and Kershaw County schools are the only Midlands public schools still conducting workouts.
Districts such as Beaufort, Richland 1 and Richland 2 haven’t even started those summer workouts. Richland 1 and 2 haven’t said when a potential start date would be. Lexington 1 stopped its sports workouts but announced they will resume Wednesday.
Coaches have said they need four to six weeks of workouts and practices to prepare for a season. Important practices for heat acclimation typically take place in August.
The South Carolina High School League will hold an executive committee meeting at 8 a.m. Wednesday to discuss possible scenarios or plans for the upcoming sports year. The league sent out a survey to principals, superintendents and athletic directors throughout the state last week to get input about the 2020-21 athletic calendar.
It’s possible the committee could vote on proposals Wednesday or give the SCHSL the authority to choose the best option for the upcoming season.
“We will try to come up with multiple proposals that will give us flexibility in case we have to make changes,” SCHSL commissioner Jerome Singleton told The State last week.
Only a few states have announced their official plans to begin fall sports. New Mexico announced it was going to move football to the spring.
“If the High School League comes back Wednesday and says we will play a region-only schedule and start practicing after Labor Day, everyone would be on the same page,” Payne said.
The S.C. Football Coaches Association board of directors met a few weeks ago to discuss possible alternatives for the fall season should there be a disruption because of the spike in coronavirus cases around the state.
The group’s four suggested options include playing a normal season as scheduled; starting later with fewer games played; moving some low-risk sports from spring to the fall and high-risk sports from the fall to the spring; and holding off on all sports entirely until January, if necessary. Payne said he would be in favor of a spring sports season for football.
The S.C. High School Soccer Coaches Association met last week and submitted a proposal to the S.C. Athletic Coaches Association to keep that sport in the spring.
“The SCHSSCA appreciates its parent organization, SCACA, for inclusion on this task as we work our way through the best-case scenarios for our student-athletes and coaches. It is our hopes and wishes that a full spring prep athletics season will come to fruition in 2021,” Gray Collegiate coach and associate chairman Kevin Heise wrote in a statement.
With the start of sports for public schools in South Carolina in question because of the coronavirus, the state’s independent high schools remain on track to begin their seasons in August.
South Carolina Independent Schools Association athletic director Mike Fanning sent an email to its member schools that they still plan to hold the first official fall sports practice July 30.
“We are still moving in that direction and still hoping for football to begin on Week 0 with slight modifications in place,” Fanning told The State on Thursday. “We are progressively moving forward.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 7:24 PM.
