Plans for a high school sports calendar were set in motion this week and those plans include moving football to late February.

On Monday, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s COVID-19 Task Force presented its recommendations to Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley.

In order to proceed with fall sports, the MIAA is waiting on guidance from DESE. It is not known whether DESE agreed with the task force’s plan, offered its own or amended the recommendations, but the task force is scheduled to present a plan to the MIAA Board of Directors in a virtual meeting Wednesday morning.

According to a report in the Boston Herald, the task force’s plan calls for all fall sports with the exception of football to be held Sept. 14 to Nov. 20. Football would slide in between the winter and spring seasons. Football, competitive cheerleaders, unified basketball and fall sports not played due to restrictions would be played Feb. 22 to April 25.

All winter sports would run Nov. 30 to Feb. 21.

Spring sports would run April 26 to July 3.

The task force recommends eliminating the MIAA’s rule for out-of-season coaching for only the 2020-21 school year, giving schools flexibility to adjust dates and tasking sport committee’s with modifying rules to follow the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’s (EEA) youth and amateur sports guidelines.

The EEA updated its safety and reopening standards for youth and amateur sports last week.

The changes for Phase 3, Step 1 went into effect on Monday, and while the document doesn’t mean there will or will not be high school sports this fall, it indicated what can be expected in the event sports returns. According to the state agency, the guidance standards apply to K-12 schools.

In regards to fall high school sports, golf, gymnastics and cross country are classified by the EEA as low risk; volleyball, field hockey and soccer are defined as moderate risk; football is a high-risk sport.

The EEA breaks down activities into four levels:

Level 1: Individual or socially distanced group activities.

Level 2: Competitive practices.

Level 3: Competitions.

Level 4: Tournaments (outdoor only).

Low-risk sports can participate in all four levels. Moderate and high risk sports can participate in level 1 as traditionally played, but in order to reach level 2 and 3, those sports need to meet the EEA’s minimum mandatory standards for modification.

The MIAA COVID-19 Task Force is co-chaired by St. John’s Prep Principal Keith Crowley and Duxbury Athletic Director Thom Holdgate. Chicopee High School Principal Carolyn Kruser and Wahconah Athletic Director Jared Shannon are the western Massachusetts representatives on the task force.

Mike Moran can be reached at mmoran@gazettenet.com. Follow on Twitter @mikemoranDHG.