LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The high school football season kicked off in six states Thursday. According to MaxPreps, play will be underway in 17 of 50 states by Friday night.
When will Kentucky football join the list during this time of concern about the novel coronavirus?
Put Sept. 7 on your calendar as the start of fall sports competition with Sept. 11 the first Friday football night.
In a virtual meeting Friday, the Kentucky Board of Education questioned but did not recommend overturning a decision by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association for the fall sports competition to begin that week. Practice began Monday.
The board voted to send a letter to the KHSAA Board of Control outlining its thought on other options for high-contact sports, guidance on how to proceed and looking at the plans of other states.
Dr. Lu Young of Nicholasville, the chairman of the board, said it was never the intention of the board to further delay or cancel the start of fall sports.
Young said the goal of Friday’s meeting was, “what more we need to do to protect athletes, coaches and fans.”
“We all know that our role is critical,” KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett said.
Dr. Steve Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, also spoke to the board and sounded less enthusiastic about the restart plan. He said he was concerned about the availability of testing across the state, especially in rural counties. He discussed a delay until Sept. 28 to allow Kentucky officials to study the results of a return to sports in other states.
“This is a difficult situation,” Stack said. “It’s complicated … Where social distancing does not happen, disease spreads.”
Stack said he would not say that people will die if high school sports competition resumes, but he also said he was uncertain if there would be serious medical consequences. He discussed heart issues that have been tied to the disease and said that many cardiologists will not treat patients 18 or younger.
Alvin Garrison, the superintendent of Covington Independent Schools, said he played sports in high school but was against sports competition starting before students returned for in-class instruction.
Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman said she wanted sports to return but that health concerns and protection had to be the top priority.
"It can't be just let the kids play ball," Coleman said.
Allison Slone of Rowan County Schools said nobody questions officials when they cancel play during dangerous weather conditions but said the virus was more dangerous than the weather. She suggested that restrictions for athletes and schools that do not meet guidelines need to be uniform and enforced.
Young and Tackett both acknowledged the health challenges surrounding the restart of sports because of COVID-19 but said that the social benefits of returning to competition were important. Tackett said five of Kentucky's seven neighboring states have already returned to play and that the KHSAA has received more than 100 calls about athletes transferring to schools in one of those states.
“We’re trying to strike a balance here,” Tackett said. “We all know we want to get back to sports, but we want to do it healthy.”
Tackett said there were two health crises at work here: COVID-19 and the psychological issues created by the cancellation of high school sports. He said mitigation strategies were critical in learning to co-exist with COVID-19.
A report earlier this week that said the BOE planned to overrule the KHSAA and further delay the season created a fierce backlash that included telephoned threats to the board, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Young said she appreciated most of the feedback that she has received, especially from athletes, calling them, “music to this retired teacher’s soul.”
High school football opened in Indiana last week. A full schedule of Week 2 games is planned for Friday night. Tennessee also played last week, and Ohio, another neighboring state, is scheduled to begin Friday. The start date for West Virginia is listed as Sept. 3 by MaxPreps.
Tackett discussed the challenges of maintaining social distancing in events, including sports like cross country, which feature congested starts and finishes. He said the football rosters will be capped at 60 players.
Tackett said attendance will determined with local decisions. He mentioned "20, 30 or 40%" percent capacity but suggested starting with smaller crowds. He said he had no doubt games will be canceled because teams will be stopped by positive tests. He said one school has already been forced into quarantine and will be unable to begin Sept. 11.
“This is not a play-at-all-costs discussion,” Tackett said. “We will never do that.”
Tackett said that the decisions that he made to cancel the girls’ and boys’ high school basketball tournaments last spring, as well as the cancellation of 2020 spring sports, were the most difficult decisions of his life.
“I made a commitment to find a way not to let that happen again,” Tackett said.
He said the KHSAA has not started discussion of the state championships because it has concentrated on a healthy opening to the season.
“We’ve been told this virus changes every day, and I believe it,” Tackett said. “This is not a competition about who is right and who is wrong.”
“This is hard,” Stack said. “The reason it’s hard is there are no answers."
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