Syracuse, N.Y. — Now that they have blueprints for a fall high school sports season like no other in hand, Section III officials on Monday lunged into the challenge of mastering the details that will make play possible.

In DeWitt, the athletic directors of the OHSL’s 28 schools gathered at the Section III office for six hours to hammer out specifics of meeting, and in some cases exceeding, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association’s coronavirus return to play guidelines.

Elsewhere, school superintendents and athletic directors from leagues across Central New York gathered virtually to begin drawing up scheduling concepts. Lower-risk sports, such as cross country, golf, tennis, swimming, gymnastics, soccer and field hockey can begin practice on Sept. 21.

That welcome starting line adds a sense of urgency to everyone committed to running a season as smoothly and safely as possible.

“They’re all scrambling right now,” said John Rathbun, executive director of Section III. “It’s a scrambling situation right now.”

OHSL president Don McClure said the main focus of his group’s marathon session was to see where they can inch beyond even the NYSPHSAA’s new rules. For instance, those recommendations stipulate that athletes who can’t maintain social distancing during play or practice wear masks unless they can’t tolerate that protective gear.

McClure said when it comes to soccer, the OHSL is proposing that all players must wear masks with no exceptions. He said a handful of breaks will be built into games so that players can distance themselves and remove the masks for a breather.

McClure said his group is working on a draft of the regulations for superintendents’ approval.

“It’s all those little procedural things that we have to go through. Our entire meeting today was to show ourselves that we are being responsible,” McClure said.

“There’s some places where I think we will be (more strict than the state rules),” said LaFayette AD Jerry Kelly. “We’re trying to look out for the kids. The last thing we want is to get this off the ground and have something happen.”

The OHSL also reviewed the possibility of junior varsity and modified competition. McClure said his group is trying to incorporate those levels of play into the fall season to whatever extent possible.

In the complicated task of scheduling, McClure said he hopes to get the soccer slates out by the end of this week. There is added urgency to that punch list item because officials need to be assigned for that sport.

The X-factor for all leagues is the question of how many schools will be fielding fall sports teams. In the OHSL, only Port Byron has said it will not join that competition.

A survey sent by Section III to all its school districts last week revealed that 58 percent were in favor of fall athletics while 42 percent preferred a delay until after Jan. 1.

But those results were not binding, and individual school districts will need to firm up their choices in the next few days so planning can proceed.

“I think everybody’s so swamped with everything. We have to start scheduling soon,” said Baldwinsville athletic director Chris Campolieta, whose school competes in the Salt City Athletic Conference. “I know for us, we’re pressing forward (with sports). For us (as a league), it’s just really doing what we’ve done before, and finding out who has the green light and who doesn’t.”

LaFargeville athletic director Danielle Wallace said the somewhat split decision among Section III schools overall may have some districts in her Frontier League reconsidering their votes. She said LaFargeville, which offers only boys and girls soccer in the fall, will not be competing.

Indian River athletic director Jay Brown said his Frontier League school voted no on the survey but at this point remains open to competition.

“Indian River would like to give it a try if we can come out with some standards (of play),” Brown said.

Then there’s the issue of scheduling philosophy. The common operating principal in an abbreviated season seems to be that divisional/league games will take priority, with non-league tilts worked in where possible.

“You’ve got to take care of the league (games) first, get those in place,” said Whitesboro athletic director Michael Devel, whose team competes in the Tri-Valley League.

But there’s the question of whether leagues will create all new schedules or pick up in early October right where the normal schedule would have been.

Kelly thinks the OHSL might lean toward the former. Chris Doroshenko, scheduler for the Center State Conference, said his group will likely play their normally scheduled games until mid-October and then round out their schedule with added contests.

“I don’t think it (scheduling) is going to be very difficult once we decide who’s going to be there,” Doroshenko said.

West Genesee athletic director Mike Burns, whose school competes in the SCAC, said he’s sure the scheduling process will run smoothly and is more concerned about enforcing procedural guidelines for hosting games. East Syracuse-Minoa athletic director Mike Clonan, vice president of the SCAC, said his league will gather on a conference call Tuesday to start charting its schedules and nailing down other details.

“We’re going to hit the ground running here,” he said. “It’s just a matter of coming to a consensus within a league. We’ll get creative and make sure we do the best we can for our student-athletes.”

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Lindsay Kramer is a reporter for the Syracuse Post-Standard and Syracuse.com. Got a comment or idea for a story? He can be reached via email at LKramer@Syracuse.com.