Idea of flipping high school sports seasons in SC gains steam. The pros and cons
The South Carolina High League executive committee will hear a pair of proposals Wednesday for the upcoming high school sports seasons. At least one idea shifts football season into the new year.
That proposal comes from Lexington County and would move the start of high school football to January. The other idea Wednesday will be one proposed by the staff of the High School League.
It was unclear Tuesday what the SCHSL proposal entails or when football would begin. It is possible they could seek later start to sports calendar.
A third item, proposed by Greenville County, proposes to suspend all summer workouts until the official start of practice. The first official practice for public schools is scheduled for July 30, but that’s unlikely to happen as of now.
States across the country are in the process of reworking their high school sports schedules because of the coronavirus pandemic. 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.
The State obtained a copy of Lexington County’s proposal. Lexington County Athletics Director David Bennett and White Knoll football coach Dean Howell were some of the individuals behind the plan, which involves four 10-week sports seasons, including playoffs.
Under the Lexington County proposal, the seasons would be divided into:
▪ Fall Sports (Sept. 21-Nov. 17): Girls tennis, baseball, softball, girls lacrosse, girls golf, and boys/girls swimming and cross country. Golf and swimming would be from Sept. 7-Oct. 30. Girls tennis would have 12 regular-season matches. Baseball and softball would have 16 regular-season games. Girls lacrosse would have 12 games, girls golf eight matches and four meets for swimming. There would be five meets for cross country.
▪ Winter Sports (Nov. 23-Jan. 29): Girls and boys basketball and spirit cheer. The boys and girls basketball seasons would each have 16 regular-season games.
▪ Spring Sports I (Jan. 25-April 2): Football, volleyball, competitive cheer. Football would play six regular-season games, volleyball 12 matches and four competitions for competitive cheer.
▪ Spring Sports II (March 22-May 28): Boys/girls soccer, boys tennis, wrestling, track, boys lacrosse track and boys golf. Soccer and tennis would each have 12 matches, wrestling eight matches, five track meets, 12 lacrosse games and eight golf matches.
The plan puts the sports considered at highest risk for spreading COVID-19 into the first half of 2021: football, wrestling, boys lacrosse and competitive cheer.
“This started a while back,” Bennett said of the proposal. “We think this is the safest way possible going from low risk to high risk. And we want to do what’s best and safest for athletes in South Carolina.”
Some Midlands baseball coaches have told The State they wouldn’t be in favor of playing in the fall because they just saw their seasons canceled in the spring because of the coronavirus. Bennett said if things were to shut down again, fall sports could be moved to the spring.
“While this is certainly not ideal, we are in unprecedented times,” Lexington baseball coach Brian Hucks said. “I do see the positives that flipping the seasons could bring, and I just want to get back on the field with my guys. If this is a move that needs to be made to have sports for everybody, I would support it.”
Bennett said many high school baseball and softball players in the state have been playing travel ball this summer, so it wouldn’t be a big switch.
There would be positives for moving football to the winter. It would remove the need for getting athletes acclimated to the heat, and there wouldn’t be a possibility of having the season interrupted because of hurricanes or weather, something that has happened in recent years.
Some of the drawbacks include the recruiting aspects. If a football player wants to enroll early in college, they wouldn’t be able to play high school sports in January. There also is safety issue with football ending in April and starting the following season in August.
Football would run over the end of the late signing period. And there would be some overlap between basketball and football seasons, but that usually happens anyway if football teams make deep playoff runs.
“We won’t take it personal if they don’t use our plan or if they take our plan and tweak it,” Bennett said. “We just need a plan in place that is safe for the everyone.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 2:19 PM.
