KHSAA Board of Control votes to stay the course with current plan for fall sports, practices to being Aug. 24

At its Board of Control meeting Thursday morning, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association discussed the possibility of adopting further changes to the 2020 fall sports season. In the end, however, the board voted to keep the current plan in place that would have athletes being able to officially begin practices on Monday, August 24.

Details of the plan to resume athletic activities this fall include the following:

• The sports of soccer and volleyball will be allowed to conduct intrasquad scrimmages beginning with the first day of practice on Aug. 24. Football will be “restricted to phase-in of activity per Bylaw 23 and revised guidance.”
• Interscholastic scrimmaging will not be allowed prior to the start of the season for soccer, volleyball and football.
• Soccer, Volleyball and Cross Country will be able to begin the season on Monday, Sept. 7. Football will begin on Friday, Sept. 11.
• Number of contests for the season will be a maximum of 14 for soccer, 24 for volleyball, 9 for cross country and 9 for football. Number of contests per week will be a maximum of 3 for soccer, 4 for volleyball, 2 for cross country and 1 game per level in football.
• The last regular season scheduled dates for each sport are currently: Sept. 26 or the day before region for golf (golf has been progressing with its season as normal), October 10 for soccer, October 17 for volleyball, October 17 or the day before region for cross country and November 7 for football.
• The final postseason scheduled date for each sports are currently: Week of October 5 for golf, week of October 26 for soccer and cross country, week of November 2 for volleyball and the week of December 7 for football.

This plan also breaks the fall season up into three stages, with the allowance for attendance at sports activities during each stage to be determined by public health guidance and approval. Attendance will be increased in each new segment if approval allows.

The KHSAA’s plan must now be approved by the Department for Public Health, the Kentucky Department of Education and the Governor’s office before it can officially go into effect.

The News Journal will provide many more details in the coming days on fall sports activities at Whitley County, Williamsburg, Corbin and Lynn Camp High Schools. Our annual high school football season preview section is currently scheduled to be included in the Wednesday, September 9 edition.