Will Wednesday be a day of news from the GHSA? (Or not)
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
For most of the summer, meetings between GHSA executive director Robin Hines and the association’s Sports Medicine Advisory Council were followed by some form of expansion of the football practice and conditioning guidelines.
But the last one of note was July 22, allowing teams to use locker rooms on a limited basis, a week after allowing the use of helmets. All preceded the normal schedule of acclimation practices starting on July 27 and regular practices on Aug. 1.
Things may change this time around when that weekly meeting is held Wednesday.
Analysis
A fairly routine story Tuesday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about that weekly meeting got the state buzzing a bit. Things were juiced up by the meeting Friday with Dr. Kathleen Toomey, the state’s Department of Public Health commissioner, and state superintendents.
The meeting was primarily to discuss the controversial opening of schools of which there is no consensus with the options of in-person, virtual or a combination. Extra-curricular activities was a topic, one that will carry over heavily to Wednesday.
Nothing official will come from Wednesday’s meeting, but perhaps another round of changes in what’s allowed at practice. There may be some more serious recommendations from the council that the GHSA will address regarding options to the start - and the latest possibilities - to the fall seasons. But nothing can happen regarding the seasons without a vote from the Board of Trustees, and in reality, there’s unlikely to be anything official for at least a week or so.
Update Wed., 12:45 p.m.
Hines reiterated around lunchtime to the AJC – as noted here – that no decisions come from Wednesday’s meeting. He also said there will be no change in guidelines announced on Wednesday.
Toomey didn’t offer anything earth-shattering, reiterating a common concern about sports, noting particularly higher risks with football and cheerleading, lower risks for tennis and golf.
Team sports with high contact in a confined space – football is No. 1 – offer more difficulties with social distancing guidelines, while more individual sports don’t.
Football’s start has been moved back two weeks to Sept. 4. Softball’s first playing date is Thursday and volleyball and cross country are Aug. 10. Competitive cheerleading can compete starting Saturday.
There has been almost no public discussion of the risks of volleyball and softball, and of changing the seasons. Many coaches were surprised that those sports stayed on schedule.
Nationally, volleyball appears considered fairly high risk, and many states are treating it similarly to football.
One issue is that the GHSA has not clearly mandated that schools report all COVID-related situations to the association. As per a templated paragraph on the website’s regular COVID update: “The GHSA Office is expecting all schools to continue reporting any and all Positive COVID-19 cases (list positive test date, athlete or coach, and sport) results since June 8th to Don Corr at don.corr@ghsa.net.”
But there is no time frame, no punishment for not reporting, and thus no ability to gauge a positive or negative surge, or give an accurate look at the state’s situation with football, volleyball, softball, and cheerleading, the fall athletics activities.
The GHSA has not publicly maintained, for example, a weekly update of that information, or of teams that have had to suspend practice. Thus, the latter number is a huge unknown.
The GHSA has shared general numbers with the AJC twice, stating on July 28 that 655 positive tests had been reported, more than double the 300 it told the paper about two weeks earlier. The AJC reported on July 28 that six football teams – Putnam County, Morgan County, Green County, Social Circle, Lincoln County, and Lakeside-Atlanta were not practicing at that specific time.
But clearly, dozens of state football teams have suspended practice for a notable period of time. In Central Georgia alone in the past several weeks (publicly and not publicly): Mary Persons, Crawford County, Houston County, Veterans, Peach County, Veterans, Howard, West Laurens, Dodge County, and Northside, among others. Not all needed a full two weeks – some were only a few day to clarify their situations – but activity was interrupted. There was less public reporting of volleyball and softball situations.
Twiggs County is not playing football this season and has suspended fall sports for at least nine weeks. There are a few other Central Georgia schools seemingly on the bubble that may announce a similar decision any day.
Decatur announced this week that it was canceling three football games in September, and all such activities until Sept. 25. Earlier this summer, Riverside Military canceled the entire season.
What to expect Wednesday is a crapshoot, and there are assorted options for football.
Superintendents and school boards decide who competes, not the GHSA, which has no specific governance over participation in general. It is the governing body of the programs volunteering to participate and be members. The GHSA has had nothing to do, technically, with the schools that aren’t competing this fall.
So the association will consult with superintendents galore – yes, metro Atlanta’s will be heard more than anybody’s, and it’s notable that more than 250 employees in the Gwinnett County system have tested positive or been exposed to the virus recently – while continuing to monitor numbers and follow controversial decisions of Gov. Brian Kemp.
Deaths are on an overall increase the past several weeks, as are hospitalizations.
The GHSA, which will be roundly criticized no matter what it decides because it’s been roundly criticized for everything it has decided, could simply decide to maintain the status quo publicly while surveying superintendents and Toomey’s department.
The first scrimmages are scheduled for Aug. 21, so the GHSA could wait until that week and those scrimmages, and the following few days, in hopes that players and coaches have been diligent in distancing together and on their own, and keep positive tests to a minimum.
That week – and how well schools clean and sanitize facilities with outsiders on hand – could be the determining factor, albeit perhaps for only a week, in the GHSA going ahead with the season starting.
Speculation also includes the possibility of pushing the start date back again, to October, and shortening the season appropriately.
A complication of sorts, for teams and coaches, is familiarity. This is the first year of a major new reclassification plan, one that yet again split Class A, to public regions and private regions. The vast majority of Central Georgia football teams have a good chunk of new region rivals. It has led to plenty of drastic schedule changes and new opponents, and everybody had to touch base in recent weeks with the change in the schedule.
Currently, the state championships at Georgia State Stadium are scheduled for Dec. 28-30.
The GISA adjusted its schedule shortly after the GHSA did the same, and the GISA eliminated a round of playoffs, which the GHSA may have to consider with another delayed start.