BROOKLYN CENTER — At the beginning of the fall sports season, many high school coaches and athletes wanted to compete for a postseason title. 

Now, a section title will be up for grabs as the the Minnesota State High School League released information about section tournaments during its special board of directors meeting Monday. 

For boys and girls soccer, girls swimming and diving, girls tennis and cross country, there will be sectional postseason play, as the goal is to keep teams localized to reduce the spread of COVID-19. State tournaments for these sports are still being discussed at MSHSL meetings. 

Section tournaments will look different this season, with many new rules to protect the athletes, coaches and officials. 

Here’s a look at the four sports and what each postseason will include. 

Boys and girls soccer 

Section tournaments for boys and girls soccer will run from Oct. 12-24, with the same requirement as the regular season, only two games per week. 

If sections have 16 teams, the MSHSL wants teams to play on Oct. 12-13 to bring the 16 teams down to eight teams. A section with only eight teams is discouraged to play on Oct. 12-13 due to the limited number of officials available those nights. 

Quarterfinals, or sections involving eight teams, would be played from Oct. 14-17. The week of Oct. 19 will be for semifinals and finals games. 

The only change to this schedule is for sections that have more than 16 teams. For those, the recommendation is to start play-in games the week of Oct. 5 if there aren’t two games already scheduled that week. 

The MSHSL also stated that high seeds hosting the game would be the best option; otherwise, a neutral site would work too.

As for fans, there’s a guidance of having a maximum of 250 spectators or 25 percent of the venue. The MSHSL highly discourages concessions for section tournaments, but CDC and state health department guidelines must be followed if provided. 

Girls swimming and diving

Girls swimming and diving section tournaments will take place the week of Oct. 19. 

This will be a multi-site section meet over two days. Swimming and diving will be held at separate locations agreed upon by section teams. 

For swimming, the meet will be a timed finals format, with a maximum of four teams at each site. The section will use the timed results from each site to determine section team and individual winners.

Sections will determine how to group schools to form the four teams at each site. Each team will be allowed four entries per event, which also applies to the diving portion. The four teams will be allowed to bring only 22 swimmers per team, meaning a total of 88 swimmers. 

There will be only three coaches allowed per team, and student managers won’t be allowed to attend. 

Just like the regular season, there will be no fans allowed in a school pool. If the meet is held at a non-school pool, that facility must follow CDC and MDH guidelines, only allowing 250 people and staying socially distant wearing masks. 

Girls and boys cross country

Boys and girls cross country section meets will take place over two days the week of Oct. 12 at multiple sites determined by each section. 

Only four teams can compete on the course at a time with each section determining how to group teams. Each team will enter six runners, with the top five scoring points for the team. 

Only 24 runners will be on the course at the same time. The section will compare times to determine team and individual winners. 

The girls and boys may run on the same day and at the same course, but they can’t be on the course at the same time. 

Similar to the regular season, there will be a maximum of 250 people allowed on the course and CDC and MDH guidelines must be followed. 

Girls tennis 

Girls tennis section tournaments will be for teams only and run Oct. 5-17. There will be no single or doubles section tournaments.

The high team seed will host the match and play on outdoor high school courts. There will be two matches per week to follow the MSHSL guidelines, and there will also be a championship and consolation tournament. 

If there are more than 16 teams in the section, there will be a play-in match during the last week of the regular season.

A maximum of 250 spectators or 25 percent of the venue will be allowed to come as long as the fans follow CDC and MDH guidelines during the match. 

Brian Mozey is the high school sports reporter for the St. Cloud Times. Reach him at 320-255-8772 or bmozey@stcloudtimes.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrianMozey.

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