Gov. Cooper made his return to school announcement. What’s next for high school sports?
After N.C. Governor Roy Cooper announced his plans for reopening of schools in North Carolina, the N.C. High School Athletic Association will now begin to formulate a plan for a possible opening of high school sports.
Cooper announced that schools can have in-person learning, with fewer students in classrooms, but must maintain six feet of social distancing. Districts can also choose to have all-remote learning.
Que Tucker, commissioner of the NCHSAA, said her organization will work with its Board of Directors, its Sports Medicine Advistory Committee and others to formulate a plan for a potential return.
“As was just shared by Governor Cooper,” Tucker said, “this decision on the starting of school for the 2020-2021 school year now puts us in a better position to make informed decisions concerning if, when, and how to resume athletic competition at NCHSAA member schools.”
Tucker said the NCHSAA will release details about its plan after Board discussion and action.
Asked about high school sports, Cooper said the return to high school athletics, or not, will be up Tucker and her staff.
“The N.C. High School Athletic Association will be making the decision about high school sports and what they’re going to engage in,” Cooper said. “I love all sports and enjoyed playing them in high school and I know a lot of our student-athletes, children, want to get back into playing sports. The association will be consulting with public health experts, including our staff here at the Department of Health and Human Services and it’s my understanding that they will be making specific decisions a little bit later on in the process.”
The NCHSAA canceled spring sports and its 2020 state basketball championships in March due to the pandemic. The NCHSAA declared co-state champions for eight boys and girls basketball teams.
On June 15, the NCHSAA allowed high school teams to return to off-season training, following a list of protocols that included no contact and temperature checks. Some systems, including Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Wake County Schools, decided to wait until July 6. But before that date, CMS and Wake pushed back a return indefinitely. CMS spokesperson Brian Hacker said the district’s position remained the same following Tuesday’s announcement from Cooper.
CMS had earlier developed three plans for reopening schools. The hybrid model presented to the public earlier this month would split most grades into three rotational groups. Students would follow and A, B and C week schedule, rotating through two weeks of remote learning and one week of in person instruction.
At the high school level, students in grades nine through 11 will also follow a three-week rotational schedule, but will have remote learning on all Fridays. For seniors, classes will be remote every week except for Fridays, which will be in person.
The three-group rotational plan allows the district to balance social distancing needs in classrooms and in transportation, as buses will have to operate with one student per seat, as opposed to the usual two or three. Families with multiple children in CMS can be grouped by their home address to allow all students to be assigned into the same rotation, for minimal scheduling conflicts, the district said earlier.
Wake County plans to split students into a rotation of one week of in-person classes followed by two weeks of remote instruction.
- Staff writer Annie Ma contributed
This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 3:37 PM with the headline "Gov. Cooper made his return to school announcement. What’s next for high school sports?."
