If its current COVID-19 numbers keep trending in an encouraging direction, Hernando County will begin practice for fall sports Sept. 14. Whether its teams compete in the state playoffs remains unclear, though it’s unlikely at this stage.

“We are heading in the right direction, we believe,” said Nature Coast athletic director Kristin Peeples, among the five Hernando public-school athletic directors who met Monday with county officials. “So if everything’s good on Sept. 10, then we’ll be starting on Sept. 14.”

Monday’s news comes three days after the Florida High School Athletic Association’s board of directors voted to allow schools in Florida to begin fall sports practices Aug. 24. School districts hit especially hard by the COVID-19 crisis have until Sept. 18 to opt out of the state playoff series and can devise their own 2020-21 sports calendars, with the help of the association staff.

Hernando students return to school Aug. 31. If the green light remains for a Sept. 14 start, fall sports competition would start the week of Sept. 28, with the first football games slated for Oct. 2.

“I do believe they’re trying to move forward with sports,” Peeples said, “but also while making sure that we follow guidelines that have been set by medical professionals.”

Those guidelines recently were presented by the association’s sports-medicine advisory committee. Among them: a World Health Organization recommended benchmark of a COVID-19 positivity rate of 5 percent or less for two weeks, and an Effective Reproduction number (individuals who become infected per single positive case) of less than 1 percent.

Only one Florida county (Hamilton) currently meets the positivity-rate guideline, but Hernando is one of 43 counties that meets the infection-rate benchmark. On Monday, Florida added 2,678 new coronavirus infections and 87 new deaths — the largest daily dip in both metrics in two months.

Hernando’s tentative calendar lags slightly behind neighboring counties. Hillsborough begins fall sports practices Aug. 24, while Pasco commences Sept. 7. Pinellas is expected to announce its start date as early as Tuesday.