With USC venues not an option in 2020, SC high schools in search of title game venues
South Carolina high school football and competitive cheer championships are a month away, but there are still no locations or venues in place for those events.
“I wish I could give you better news, but we don’t know where those finals will be held yet,” S.C. High School League commissioner Jerome Singleton said Tuesday on a conference call with the league’s executive committee. ”With maintaining social distancing, there are not many of those venues that could accomplish that.”
The football state championships are typically held at South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium for Class 3A, 4A and 5A, and Benedict College in Columbia for Class A and 2A. Cheerleading finals are usually at USC’s Colonial Life Arena.
The Gamecocks’ venues are not an option this year, while Benedict has not been ruled out.
Singleton said holding games at USC would be too costly, and some of the smaller colleges in the state aren’t opening up their facilities. One option would be holding championships at multiple smaller venues. If a site hosts multiple games, the stadium would have to be cleared out and sanitized between games.
Football championships are scheduled to be held Dec. 4-5, with cheer finals in mid-December. Basketball finals, typically in March at Colonial Life Arena, might also need to find a new home, but that decision has not been made.
There is a chance that cheer championships could be held with limited or no spectators, Singleton said.
The SCHSL commissioner told The State earlier this month that he hoped to finalize football venues before the start of the playoffs, which is Nov. 13.
Winter sports, which include basketball and wrestling, are scheduled to begin practice next week. The SCHSL proposal on winter sports guidelines was passed 14-0 Tuesday by the executive committee.
Some of the highlights of the proposal:
▪ Basketball start date remains Nov. 2 with first contests Nov. 30. Scrimmages, which can begin on Nov. 12, will be reduced from four to two and must have five days in between. There are no jamborees allowed.
▪Wrestling practice start will be moved from Nov. 2 to Nov. 9. Full practices can begin Nov. 16. First match is Dec. 14. State finals will be a week later on the calendar to Feb. 20 with individual championships March 5-6.
▪There should be at least two days between contests for basketball and wrestling except for tournaments. No reductions on the total amount of games or matches on the schedule.
▪A closed season for spring sports will be in place, which means teams can’t use the 20 days of practice they normally could during December and January.
▪Wrestling and basketball playoffs will be trimmed to four rounds instead of five.
▪The proposal also recommended, but did not require, COVID-19 testing once a month for wrestling and basketball.
▪For multiple-team basketball and wrestling tournaments with spectators, it is recommended but not required that venues be cleared out and cleaned between games and matches.
▪For basketball region play, it is recommended to try and play the same team twice in the same week. Region 5-3A has said they will already do that. It also is recommended to leave a week open at the end of the season for makeup games. It also is recommended to not schedule games of matches the first few days after Christmas.
In the fall, the SCHSL moved back the start of football practice three weeks because of the coronavirus, while most other fall sports started on time.
The fall sports season has had its share of postponements and cancellations but still is moving forward. Two teams, Mid-Carolina volleyball and Fort Dorchester girls swimming, weren’t able to compete in their playoffs/state championship because of COVID-19 issues. Mid-Carolina won the Region 4-3A championship.
The state swimming championships were held earlier this month and the girls golf and tennis championships are this week.
Volleyball and cross country championships are set for next week.
“We were able to have fall sports season, so I count that as a win,” Singleton said Tuesday.
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 11:38 AM.
