COLUMBUS – Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced during a press conference on Thursday that a decision on fall contact high school sports will come on Tuesday.

At the end of his press conference on Thursday, DeWine was asked about the timeline of an announcement upon high school football and other fall contact sports like soccer and field hockey. He revealed an announcement will come on Tuesday as he and Lt. Governor Jon Husted will finalize plans with the Ohio High School Athletic Association over the weekend to help athletes return to competition safely.

“We are going to have an announcement on Tuesday that the Lt. Governor and I will make about high school sports,” DeWine said. “We have been working with the Ohio High School Athletic Association to get it right. We will provide guidelines to make it as safe as possible. I have a great deal of confidence in the coaches who are out there and in fact, we are going to set up a call and talk to some of the coaches in the next few days.

“We hope to talk to all the coaches because they have the opportunity not just in practice and games to impress upon their athletes the importance of keeping a distance and being safe, but it is also important what young people do when they are not playing when they are home and when they are out and about. Having the coaches focus on that as we always look to our coaches for leadership and in the era of the pandemic, leadership and fighting the coronavirus is their most important job.”

DeWine also gave listeners a preview of what the announcement will be as it sounds like fall contact sports will be approved, but with restrictions to the number of fans allowed to attend the live events to parents and those immediately related to the athletes on the competitive field.

“A little preview, this will be a decision made by the parents and by schools,” DeWine said. “They will make those decisions. We are going to restrict the number of fans. We want the athletes to compete and the young people to have their season. We want to do it as safely as possible.

“It will be disruptive for some people but we want to make sure that the parents and the people who mean a lot to that particular child have the opportunity to see them. For the rest of us, we will have to hear about the game or maybe we can pick it up on the internet. It is about the kids and we will be working out the details this weekend for every one of the sports. That will be coming.”

DeWine wanted to reiterate that the decisions will be made by parents and schools as to the return of athletics. He also wanted to make sure to reinforce that it is ultimately up to the community and how it reacts to controlling an outbreak which will directly affect schools and athletics.

“Our goal is to have this decided by parents, number one, and by schools, number two,” DeWine said. “That includes local health departments as all of them interplay. What goes on in the school and what goes on with the athletes is directly related to what goes on in the community. If you want your son or daughter to play sports, or want them to have any other extracurricular activities, the ability for that school to stay open and for the kids to play sports is directly dependent on the community. We all just need to be in this together so our kids can have this experience. It won’t last unless we slow this coronavirus down.”

It seems to be good news for athletes wanting a season as all signs point to a season happening but the details of how the events will happen will be released on Tuesday.

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