Syracuse, N.Y. — The governing body of high school sports in New York on Monday voted to push back the start of this season’s winter sports schedule.

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association’s coronavirus task force agreed to move the start date from Nov. 16 to Nov. 30 to give schools and sections more time to complete the fall athletic season. The fall season is scheduled to start Sept. 21, a date delayed to further prepare for competition amid coronavirus concerns.

“As the fall sports season starts on Sept 21, we felt it was most appropriate to delay the start of the winter sports season by two weeks to afford sections and schools additional time to play the fall sports seasons before the winter seasons began,” Paul Harrica, NYSPHSAA president and chair of the task force, said in a statement. “The task force and officers spent a great deal of time discussing these topics to determine what is best for schools and student-athletes.”

The NYSPHAA also:

• Voted to approve revising the number of required practices for fall athletes (12 practices for football and 10 for all other fall sports);
• Waived the rule barring practices and/or games on seven-consecutive days starting on Oct. 12;
• Continued to consider the high-risk sports of football and volleyball as fall sports.
• Restricted games for low- and moderate-risk sports to competition within their league and/or section until Oct. 19. After that, those teams are free to face opponents outside their leagues or sections.

The task force is developing a document with guidance for member schools to use as they prepare for the return of interscholastic athletics this fall. The anticipated release date of the document is Friday.

If the fall sports seasons are interrupted or impacted by the coronavirus (i.e. state official guidance, school closings, etc.), then a condensed seasons plan could still be implemented. That decision will be made by the NYSPHSAA officers with the information available at that time.

If fall and the start of winter seasons cannot be held on schedule, the NYSPHAA has adopted a plan B that would try to wedge all three seasons of sports into the second-half of the school year.

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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.