The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association announced Tuesday evening a joint recommendation for a four-season athletic calendar to the MIAA Board of Directors.

The Board of Directors is set to meet Wednesday, Aug. 18 at 9:30 a.m. MassLive will have live updates throughout the meeting.

“Working in close consultation with a variety of stakeholders and our medical advisors based on the Youth and Adult Amateur Sports Guidance recently provided by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) have collaborated to provide the following modified sports schedule for school year 2020-21 and guidance for sports participation for students who are learning remotely,” the statement read. “Please note that this guidance is pending ratification by the MIAA board and is subject to change throughout the school year.”

The guidance follows the recommended proposal reportedly made by the MIAA’s COVID-19 Task Force committee. A fall season featuring golf, cross country, field hockey, soccer, gymnastics and volleyball would begin starting Sept. 18. Football, cheerleading and unified basketball, however, will only be allowed to practice during that time. After the winter sports season, a “floating season” — or a second fall season — that features football, cheerleading and unified basketball will take place.

That floating season is followed by a spring season. While the MIAA’s COVID-19 Task Force had recommended start dates for each season, the guidance released Tuesday had the winter, floating season and spring season start dates as to-be determined.

Sports will be required to follow the EEA’s guidelines for modification. Every fall sport except for golf was listed as at least a moderate risk.

Those modifications include eliminating deliberate contact and minimizing intermittent contact as well as increased distancing.

“If those modifications cannot be met, the sport may consider moving to a later season or adopting a ‘practice only’ model using the EEA cohort method and in alignment with other EEA guidelines,” Tuesday’s statement said.

Higher risk sports that take place later in the year, such as basketball, hockey and wrestling, will be analyzed closer to the start of their season. Those that cannot be played will similarly be moved to later in the year or to a floating season.

The guidance from DESE and the MIAA also detailed the recommendations for those school districts that will utilize remote learning at the start of the year based on the color-coded coronavirus status of each area.

“Districts designated as ‘red’ based on the Department of Public Health (DPH)‘s metric of average daily cases per 100,000 residents and which therefore have their high school students learning remotely at the start of the season, must postpone their entire season, including practices, until the floating season later in the year,” the statement read.

That being said, if a non-red district begins with remote learning, the district’s school committee will vote to determine when the school will play.

“Districts designated as yellow, green, or unshaded based on the DPH metric that nonetheless have their high school students learning remotely at the start of the season may similarly delay their season to the floating season,” DESE and the MIAA said.

“If a yellow, green, or unshaded district that is only offering remote learning to its high school students wishes to participate in the regularly scheduled sports season, this must be approved by the local school committee.”

Related Content