The SC high school sports seasons have a start date, but it’s not a done deal yet
Lexington County’s proposal to shuffle high school sports seasons in South Carolina will get another chance Wednesday.
The plan that would shift football season to early January and move traditional spring sports such as baseball, softball and girls lacrosse to the fall was voted down 16-1 at last week’s South Carolina High School League Executive Committee meeting. The committee instead approved the High School League’s plan for shorter fall sports seasons that start a few weeks later than normal.
The appeal will be heard at 11 a.m. Wednesday in front of the High School League’s seven-member appellate panel. That panel was created several years ago to act as a final say in the appeals process. One member of each of the seven congressional districts in the state is represented on the panel.
In February, the appellate panel ruled in Irmo’s and West-Oak’s favor regarding realignment, so there is precedent of overturning decisions made by the SCHSL Executive Committee.
If the appellate panel denies Lexington’s appeal, the S.C. High School League’s plan would be in place for the fall sports season.
The executive committee last week voted in favor of the SCHSL plan, which has fall sports practices beginning Aug. 17 and football games starting four weeks later. SCHSL commissioner Jerome Singleton said that all fall sports teams get two scrimmages and a jamboree. The plan calls for seven-regular season football games starting Sept. 11.
The SCHSL plan did not address dates or the outlook for winter and spring sports, focusing only on the fall and sports such as football, competitive cheer, girls tennis, girls golf, swimming and volleyball. The winter and spring sports plan will be revisited at a later date and could be adjusted as needed, according to Singleton.
Lexington County’s plan calls for four sports seasons:
▪ 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 1 (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 2 (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.
Lexington’s 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.
“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,” Lexington 1 Athletic Director David Bennett said last week.
Lexington’s appeal plan seems to have the backing of the football coaches from around the state.
The State asked 30 football coaches from around the state which plan they liked better, and a majority were in favor of Lexington’s proposal. Many coaches think playing football in the fall is unlikely because of high number of COVID-19 cases around the state.
A few states — California, Virginia and New Mexico — already have moved football away from the fall.
“Lexington’s plan is looking better every day,” one Midlands coach told The State.
York football coach Dean Boyd was one of the coaches who told The State he liked the SCHSL plan because it would give football a second chance to play if it doesn’t happen in the fall.
Singleton said last week that if a football season gets canceled, there would be the option to move it to the spring under the SCHSL plan, though it would present challenges.
“It is a no-brainer to me,” Boyd said. “Opportunity to play once or opportunity at two chances to play. Not sure why there is a big push the other way.”
Baseball and basketball coaches seem to favor the SCHSL’s approved plan along with the volleyball and softball coaches. The South Carolina Coaches of Women’s Sports Association said Monday night volleyball and softball coaches were against Lexington’s plan.
The South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association also conducted its own survey on the matter, asking its members which plan they liked better. Sixty-seven percent of the coaches who answered the survey voted against the Lexington plan and 77 percent voted against the single-elimination playoff that would be used in the format.
Blythewood baseball coach Banks Faulkner has been an outspoken opponent to the Lexington plan on Twitter. Faulkner’s Bengals squad, like all spring sports, had their seasons cut short.
“I don’t know the right solution but I don’t think this is it,” Faulkner said. “I am concerned we won’t be in school and then rushed into play and don’t like the fact we will be jumping into the region schedule. I don’t want a shortened season for our young guys. The plan calls for 12 JV games and we just played five in spring, and we usually play 24 JV games a year. So you are losing a whole season of development.
“But if they tell us to play in September, we will play. But I am not in favor of it.”
Baseball and basketball coaches are concerned about the prospect of no sports being played through January. Baseball coaches like Faulkner just watched their seasons end in the spring after sports and schools throughout the state were shut down in March because of the coronavirus.
Under the Lexington plan, if basketball and sports like baseball and softball are pushed back, baseball/softball would go to Spring 2 and basketball either Spring 1 or 2, whichever the SCHSL wants, Bennett said.
“My biggest thing is, there is more flexibility involved with the High School League plan,” Westwood basketball coach and S.C. Basketball Coaches president John Combs said. “You would get to play as normal a season as possible even if things were moved to the spring.”
