CHAPEL HILL — The much anticipated news that all high school student-athletes, coaches and sports fans have been waiting almost three months for finally broke early Monday morning.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association issued a statement on Twitter at 9:30 a.m. informing it will lift its current coronavirus dead period effective on June 15. The decision was made during a Zoom meeting on Friday by the NCHSAA Board of Directors.
The diminishing of the ban, which included all workouts, practices and games, will come after a 95-day hiatus that first went into effect on March 13. Within that span, there were three additional extensions of the ban, the most recent coming ahead of the previous projected date of June 1.
“Effective June 15, the NCHSAA will lift the current Dead Period, provided each Local Education Agency (LEA) gives its okay and permission to do so,” the statement read. “It is to be understood that Superintendents and local Boards of Education control when they will allow activities to resume in athletic facilities and venues.”
Commissioner Que Tucker and the NCHSAA are opening the first door to resuming interscholastic athletics after the unprecedented stoppage of play due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
The dead period eliminated the majority of the spring sports season, as well as the state basketball championships.
As the statement reads, the NCHSAA is giving local school districts and boards of education the ability to enforce their own set of rules and return-to-play guidelines if they choose to.
At the time of this publication, Richmond County Schools superintendent Dr. Jeff Maples did not reply as to what RCS will do moving forward.
The NCHSAA’s statement added that it had been “working closely with the NCHSAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC) on recommendations for member schools regarding summer activities that align with NC DHHS directives.”
Another source for guidelines used by the NCHSAA in making this decision came from the National Federation of State High School Associations. The NFHS listed guidelines and ranked sports as higher or lower risk depending on how much physical contact each one involves.
Much like Gov. Roy Cooper’s pathway to reopen businesses and venues around the state, the NCHSAA will be using a phasing system that will have a set of “general requirements” that apply to all sports, year round, as well as “specific requirements” for each individual sport.
Phase two and phase three will be revealed in the coming weeks.
During unaffected times, the summer months at Richmond Senior High School see sports such as football, boys’ soccer, volleyball, cross country, girls’ tennis and girls’ golf participate in workouts, camps and practices. To this point, none of them have met since prior to the NCHSAA’s decision to halt play just two weeks into the spring sports season.
Phase one of beginning sports is based on the current health and safety measures of the CDC and DHHS, and the NCHSAA said the guidelines “are subject to change” if COVID-19 changes social conditions.
“Coaches, I’m not going to pretend to tell you what’s best for your program. However, I know we all want to keep moving forward toward our seasons and being a positive impact on our kids,” fourth-year Raider football coach Bryan Till tweeted.
“PLEASE adhere strictly to the guidelines the state provides so we don’t go backwards,” he added.
The NCHSAA wrote on its website in order for student-athetes to be able to participate in workouts beginning June 15, if allowed by school districts, the following documents are required:
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Physical Examination Form — dated on or after March 1, 2019
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Initial Screening Questions — must be signed prior to beginning summer workouts
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Daily Monitoring Form — daily temperature and symptom check
Lower risk sports include cross country, golf, baseball, softball, swimming, tennis and track and field, while higher risk programs feature football, cheerleading, basketball, soccer, wrestling and volleyball.
The NCHSAA also erased the dead period slated for June 29-July 1, but washed the July 20-26 down time.
This is a developing story and the Richmond Observer will provide updates as they’re made available.
