High School Sports: AN EXTENDED SUSPENSION

By MARK SCHAFER

Special to the Jefferson Herald
sports@carrollspaper.com

For 2020, spring sport athletes might gain a little bit of flexibility.
Some of it will be out of necessity.
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, the Iowa High School Athletic Association and Iowa Girls Athletic Union are doing what they can to preserve the spring sports season. Both the IHSAA and IGHSAU are following the recommendations of the Iowa Department of Education on when it will be safe to start the spring sports seasons.
Right now, both the IHSAA and IGHSAU are aiming for a May 1 start date for spring practices. Because of the new scheduled start dates, the season-ending state tournaments for all spring sports have been pushed back.
“We have had a handful of options available,” said IHSAA Communications director Chris Cuellar.
Once the IHSAA and IGHSAU learned of the new proposed start date for Iowa schools, they started to make backup plans for the spring sports schedule. What they did was work backward from the state tournaments to the new May 1 starting date.
The spring sports season now runs through the month of May. Track and field events will hold their state meet from June 4-6 at Drake Stadium. The Co-ed state qualifying meets are set for May 28
Golf starts their post season, for girls competition on May 26. The boys golf postseason will start May 29. State championships for the girls golf tournament will be June 8-9. The 2A meet will be held at the American Legion Golf Course in Marshalltown. The boys state golf championships will run June 11-12, with the Class 3A meet held at Elmwood Country Club in Marshalltown.
Soccer for the boys and girls state championships will take place June 15-20 with the girls playing on the 16, 18 and 20th. Boys will play their games June 15, 17 and 19 in Des Moines.
Being able to hold the state competitions at their original sites was something both the IGHSAU and IHSAA wanted to preserve, if they could.
“We wanted to set the dates in stone as much as we could at this time,” Cuellar said. “The big thing was we wanted to talk to venues and make sure everything was going to work with the dates we had in mind.”
So far, everyone, including the schools that were scheduled to host sectional and district track and golf meets, have been able to maintain their commitments.
“There has been absolutely no push back at all,” Cuellar said about hosts moving around dates to accommodate the new schedule. “They all want to stay flexible. They have done what they need to do to get us the dates we have in mind.”
The developments with COVID-19 have left an ever-changing world in its wake. The new dates are the recommendations based off a May 1 start date. But schools, and athletes will need to be flexible if the May 1 date gets delayed again. While other states, such as Nebraska and South Dakota, have called off their spring sport season, both the IHSAA and IGHSAU have been trying to preserve theirs.
“We are thinking about these kids and seniors everyday,” Cuellar said. “Even if this season is different than other years, we want to give the seniors an event that capitalizes what they have been working for, and if possible, have their seasons end with a state tournament.”
That could mean some state events look different this year. Further delays could cause the state track championships, for example, to be moved out of Drake Stadium. While it could happen, it is a remote possibility, Cuellar said.
“Drake Stadium has made themselves available. We love being there and that is our ideal setting,” he said. “We want to close out the track season there. If the first choice venues don’t work, then we have contingency plans in place.”
Cuellar didn’t reveal what the contingency plans are, but did say both the IHSAA and IGHSAU could tighten up the schedules and possibly split up classes if they need to. Iowa is unique with how their high school schedules are set up, with baseball and softball being played in the summer. Not only does that give the both the IHSAA and IGHSAU a little more time to squeeze in a shortened spring season, but it buys spring sport seniors time to get their season in. Both summer sports will have their schedules pushed back and shortened, in this aforementioned scenario.
“It gives us more flexibility and they are able to go a little later,” Cuellar said about dipping some spring sports later into June if they need to. “I’m not sure everyone is ready to work until the end of July, as some have suggested. Everyone is having to be flexible right now.”
The baseball and softball seasons, which are scheduled to start practices on May 4 are still on as scheduled, but those could change too as the timeline for schools becomes more and more clear.
Both the IHSAA and IGHSAU are following the recommendations of the Iowa Department of Education. If the Dept. of Education wants to extend the May 1 guidelines, then the IHSAA and IGHSAU would move the start of their spring seasons as well. In an absolute worst-case scenario, where schools are not allowed in for the rest of the school year, that would likely end any chance for a spring sports season.
“Our schools are our members,” Cuellar said. “We can’t be in session if the schools aren’t. If school is canceled through the end of the school year, it would be difficult to have a spring sport season. We would have to examine what summer sports dates we could use within the guidelines of both the Dept. of Education as well as the CDC and governors office.”