CHESHIRE — Traditional 11-on-11 tackle football games will not be played this fall in Connecticut. Girls volleyball games will, but with players wearing masks.

The CIAC’s Board of Control voted Friday morning to cancel full-contact football after the state Department of Public Health, in a Thursday letter, reiterated its stance against higher risk sports such as football and indoor volleyball being played this fall.

A solution was found for volleyball, but not for 11-on-11 football, and without the support of the Department of Public Health the CIAC did not want to put school districts in the position of having to defy the state.

”For our boards, for our superintendents, for our kids, we have reached that point in that timeline where an alignment and position needed to come into agreement between CIAC and DPH,” CIAC Executive Director Glenn Lungarini said Friday. “We feel that we’ve exhausted every scenario we could to present our position and, reaching that impasse, we need to respect and align with their position that high-risk football just can’t take place this fall.”

And yet football isn’t dead entirely. The CIAC will look for lower-risk alternatives, such as combines. That means teams can continue with the conditioning and non-contact skill workouts that have been under way since last Saturday.

The CIAC is hoping to come up with football options by September 21, which is when the other fall sports — unaffected by Friday’s announcement —are slated to move to full-team practices.

In place of 11-on-11 football, DPH has recommended the 7-on-7, non-tackling version seen in summer passing leagues and being played this fall in Vermont. That option, though, is not popular among coaches, players or the CIAC.

“We don’t think that 7-v-7 football is a replacement for 11-v-11 football,” Lungarini said, noting that the National Federation of High School Associations has taken the same position. “I am hopeful that we will come up with the coaches and the athletic directors and our football committee a number of low to moderate risk activities that don’t present any more danger than a soccer or field hockey game would present.”

“While it’s extremely disappointing that we weren’t able to find that one position that gives kids that full football experience … we still have opportunities to keep our kids engaged,” Lungarini added.

As for volleyball, the DPH was recommending the game be moved outdoors. The CIAC found that unworkable for safety, weather and equity reasons. The solution was keeping the game indoors with players wearing masks.

“The CIAC and its medical experts believe that the modification of wearing masks mitigates the risk expressed by DPH and provides a safe indoor environment for the sport of volleyball,” the CIAC stated.

Friday’s announcement was the latest twist in a Connecticut sports rollercoaster ride that dates back to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March, but gained added turbulence over the past month when decrees were issued only to be reversed.

The CIAC allowed teams to start conditioning in cohorts of 10 on July 6 only to shut it down for 12 days in mid-August when the state Department of Public Health raised objections to the  initial fall plan unveiled by the CIAC on July 30.

On August 27, the CIAC updated that plan, calling for three weeks of cohort practice, two weeks of full-team practice and an October 1 start date for games. The plan also gave a green light for 11-on-11 football.

The problem was, DPH was still advising against 11-on-11, recommending football either be pushed to spring or scaled back to 7-on-7 for the fall.

The CIAC, in response, asked if DPH would evaluate COVID data with the CIAC at the end of September or in early October to determine whether high‐risk sports could proceed. The DPH, in its Thursday letter to the CIAC, stuck to its guns.

“As we have stated previously and consistently, there are characteristics that make certain sports unique with regard to their potential for the spread of COVID-19, and thereby present a higher risk for initiating or furthering community spread of any outbreaks even when data metrics support in-person learning,” wrote DPH Acting Commissioner Deidre Gifford.

“With regard to CIAC’s consideration of additional mitigation strategies for indoor girls’ volleyball and football that may lower their risks for person-to-person respiratory droplet spread, DPH has suggested that CIAC consider modifications to higher risk activities, and we continue to encourage such modifications. Absent such modifications, DPH is unlikely to support higher risk activities for the Fall term.”

Another key component to the story came on August 14, when the CIAC rejected a vote from its Football Committee to push the football season to the spring. The Football Committee was almost unanimous, voting 9-1, in its recommendation.

The CIAC countered by saying the state’s low COVID numbers warranted playing football now and that there was no guarantee the numbers would be better in the spring. Lungarini reiterated that position Friday.

“Much like the evidence for us hasn’t changed that it is appropriate to play now, the evidence for us at this point hasn’t changed that the opportunities in the spring will be any better than what it is right now,” the executive director said.

Others are hoping the organization reconsiders. Coincidentally, Rhode Island on Friday cancelled football for the fall, but held out the option for a spring season.

“With all the upset people in the sports world in Connecticut, I would think they would look at it,” Platt Athletic Director Rich Katz said of the spring option. “I would hope they would look at that now.”

The rest of the CIAC’s fall plan remains intact. 

On Friday, teams completed the first of three weeks of conditioning and non-contact skill work practices that are limited to one hour and must be done in cohorts of no more than 10.

Longer, full-team practices will begin on September 21 if the state’s COVID-19 case numbers, after the first two weeks of school, remain below certain thresholds.

A 12-game regular season would be played in October, followed by a “tournament experience” in early November — again, if COVID-19 numbers remain sufficiently low.

The DPH is charting the state’s daily numbers, as well as weekly numbers on schools, every Thursday, at data.ct.gov/stories/s/CT-School-Reopening. That data includes the numbers the state Department of Education and DPH are using to advise schools on remote versus distance learning.

The early read-out, according to DPH, is not favorable. The state has had a recent rise in cases and people under the age of 30 have accounted for about half of it.

“Unfortunately, we are already seeing some of the metrics in our state trending upward,” Gifford wrote in Thursday’s letter to the CIAC.

Friday’s decision by the CIAC brought a formal close to high school-level tackle football in Connecticut for 2020. The prep schools, such as Choate, cancelled football last month. All of Connecticut’s colleges have also cancelled football. Some youth football organizations, including the Meriden Raiders, are playing.

Greg Lederer contributed to this story