BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – With plans for the various fall sports still being finalized, the Vermont Principals’ Association held it’s annual Media Day Tuesday morning. When school’s open on the 8th under Step Two of the state’s ‘Strong and Healthy Start’ guidance, fall sports teams will be allowed to practice under established health and safety guidelines.

Games can begin once Department of Health determines schools can move to Step Three of the return process. The VPA anticipates, if everything goes to plan, that it will be more than ten days before the state moves to Step Three, so the earliest games could begin would be Saturday, September 19th or Monday, the 21st.

The VPA also unveiled the fall state championship calendar as it stands now. The first state championship, in Bass Fishing, with be held on Saturday, October 3rd.

The golf finals are the following week. Girls on Tuesday, October 6th at The Links at Lang Farm at Essex, Boys the next day at Country Club of Barre.

Cross Country will be Saturday, October 31st at Thetford. Mass Starts will not be allowed, so the VPA’s cross-country committee is still working on plans for how cross country meets will be held.

Field Hockey finals will be that same day, October 31st, but the site is up in the air. As of now, college’s are not opening their facilities to outside parties according to the VPA. The field hockey finals have recently been held at UVM.

The Soccer committee asked for the end of its season to be extended as week, so the state finals will be Saturday, November 7th. The goal is to play all finals on turf fields, but sites have not been finalized.

As for football and volleyball, the two fall sports that have to make the most drastic changes, football moving to 7-on-7 touch, volleyball needing to be played outdoors, the committees overseeing those sports are still determining whether or not to hold a postseason this fall.

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