It’s only a baby step, but it’s a pretty big one for the future of sports in Coventry.

On Thursday night the Coventry School Committee voted 5-0 in favor of reinstating fall sports, approving $42,500 to fund the high school’s five fall teams for a season that’s set to begin next week.

“There was a big exhale [on Thursday] night, especially from those parents and kids that it affects immediately,” Coventry athletic director Chuck Jones said. “Hopefully the other kids see that there is possibly light at the end of the tunnel and everything will be back.”

There’s a lot of politics left to be played for the remaining sports — as well as all extracurricular activities — at Coventry High School, but Thursday’s news was big because of the immediacy of the fall season.

Coventry was supposed to notify the Rhode Island Interscholastic League of its intent to play last week, but the RIIL allowed the situation to play out before making a formal decision.

“We had conversations with the superintendent and Chuck and everyone that was there trying to make sure they knew we understood they were under constraints beyond their control,” RIIL executive director Mike Lunney said. “We wanted to make sure we would be there for them and work it out.”

“They could have been steadfast and hard and I understood that,” Jones said. “It was more because of the officials and schools that needed to make plans if we weren’t going to be in, but they were very gracious.”

Coventry has teams in boys and girls soccer, boys and girls cross country and girls tennis this fall. News of Thursday night’s vote didn’t take long to reach players and coaches.

“I was listening to the meeting and when the vote came in I immediately sent out the word we would practice [on Friday],” girls soccer coach Chris Daigneault said. “Of course, like 10 of them had to work today, so we’re having a meeting and if they show up, they show up.”

“It’s been a roller coaster the past few weeks,” girls cross country coach Carlton Bradshaw said. “Of course it’s exciting, but then it’s sort of like I spent 10 seconds being excited and then like 20 minutes of almost feeling anxious about things we have to follow to be in compliance.”

Bradshaw and boys cross country coach Chris Warner, as well as girls tennis coach Tiffany Risch, will have their work cut out for them as they put teams together. The Oakers girls tennis team is slated to play at Rogers on Oct. 3 and the boys and girls cross country teams will both be running their first dual meets that morning as well.

“They’ve been putting work in on their own; some, when outdoor track was canceled, they haven’t stopped running since that week,” Bradshaw said. “They’ve been in every day and every week asking for advice from me. They’re pretty darn committed and I know they’re probably more excited than I am that they came back.”

The soccer season won’t start until the following weekend. The Coventry boys team is scheduled to host Westerly on Saturday, Oct. 10, and the girls team will host North Kingstown the same day.

“Now that it’s starting I feel better,” Daigneault said. “I feel like I let them down before this. I was literally brought to tears to know that they’re finally going to be playing.”