52-page guideline released to address return of sports in fall

Local school districts will be allowed to devise their own policies in the event of positive COVID-19 tests on their athletic teams, the Idaho High School Activities Association has decided.

That — and much more — was included in a 52-page document from the IHSAA, outlining guidelines for fall sports. The first day of practice for fall sports in Idaho is Aug. 10.

“Like the governor, we wanted to give the local school districts as much control as we could,” IHSAA executive director Ty Jones said. The analogy I’ve been using is ... what’s good for the Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls area is probably going to be drastically different that what’s needed in Challis or Mackay or North Gem. So it didn’t make a whole lot of sense for us to have one blanket policy for the entire state. We also heard from a lot of school districts that they wanted some say in what they could do, and how they do it.”

Jones gave the example of, say, a volleyball player who went on a family trip over the weekend, and it turned out someone on that family trip had COVID-19.

“It doesn’t make any sense to shut the entire volleyball program down, if that athlete was able to self-quarantine ... and they could determine no one else on the volleyball team was close to the young lady,” he said.

But if the player was around the rest of her team after that, it’s possible the team could be shut down for a couple weeks.

“That’s where the district needs to come up with a policy how to handle positive tests,” he said.

Also, if members of another team had no contact with the infected athlete, there didn’t seem like much need to shut all of the school’s programs down.

It will be up to the individual school districts to decide whether a player or their team was shut down in the case of a positive COVID tests.

Committees for each fall sport were formed, to determine guidelines and precautions in the case sports return in the fall.

Jones said when he talked to members of the committees, “they all said they want to play if they can,” he said.

But ...

“This thing could change tomorrow,” he added. “This thing is far from over, we anticipate this is going to be going on for most of the year.”

The possibility exists that, because of positive COVID tests, some players and/or teams could be shut down more than once during a season.

Jones said if league games were canceled because a team couldn’t play because they were shut down because of positive COVID tests, those games would not count as forfeits.

If that means not all teams in a league played the same amount of league games, MaxPreps rankings would be used to determine postseason seeding.

Only a school district superintendent can cancel their team’s game because of COVID.

Jones said they decided that, in talking to other states, that teams could manipulate the seedings by not playing another team.

“Some schools figured out, if we don’t play School B, it will help our rankings by not playing them,” he said. “If you don’t want to play somebody, that’s fine, but if it’s not COVID-related, and it’s not canceled by your super, you’re going to have to take a forfeit.”

Schools will have to come up with their own plans on how many spectators will be allowed at an event, and a transportation plan, as they won’t be able to have full buses for road trips, due to social distancing guidelines.

Face masks will be allowed, but not required, for athletes. Plastic shields covering the entire face (or attached to a helmet) will not be allowed.

Coaches and officials will have to wear masks. Officials can use an air horn or electronic whistle in place of the traditional whistle.

In football, the team box will be extended on both ends of the field to the 10-yard line. Only one player per team will go to midfield for the pre-game coin toss.

In volleyball, teams won’t switch benches between sets.

In swimming, virtual meets are OK.

In all sports, the pre- and post-game handshakes will be eliminated.

Only a few spring sports teams were able to play before the COVID-19 stoppage, and spring sports championships in Idaho were canceled because of the pandemic.

The IHSAA is doing all it can to give fall sports athletes a chance to play.

“We’re cautiously optimistic, but ... we see what’s out there, we see what’s happening,” Jones said. “But we have to plan to move ahead on the off chance that things do drastically change, and if they do we’ll be ready to go, and if they don’t we’ll still be ready to go in some form or another.”

The IHSAA’s guidance plans can be viewed at idhsaa.org