The MIAA hockey committee on Wednesday began the process of developing modifications that might be needed to play the sport this winter while not running afoul of state health guidelines.

The MIAA ice hockey committee has formed a subcommittee, including Hull athletic director Scott Paine, to look into possible modifications to the sport to bring it in line with the state’s COVID-19 health guidelines.

As of now, ice hockey is one of four winter sports — along with basketball, wrestling and competitive cheer — that are considered high risk and likely would not be allowed to start competing under the current rules.

In a virtual meeting on Tuesday, the MIAA Board of Directors was told that updated state health guidelines for the winter likely will not be announced until the first week of November. That doesn’t give the hockey community much time. Under the MIAA’s “four-season” sports plan, the winter season is scheduled to begin on Nov. 30, 10 days after the fall season finishes.

Under guidelines set by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), fall sports have undergone a radical makeover. For example, field hockey has been reduced from 11-on-11 to 7-on-7 and soccer has eliminated heading the ball, replaced throw-ins with kick-ins and outlawed all intentional contact between players. Players in most sports, including field hockey and soccer, must wear masks while competing.

Barring a breakthrough in the fight against COVID-19, expect changes along those lines for hockey, too.

Hockey committee chair Dan Shine, the AD at Arlington Catholic, noted that the Massachusetts State Hockey Coaches Association already has mapped out some ideas about how the sport could be adjusted for a coronavirus world. The committee also has communicated with USA Hockey about what that organization is recommending for its programs.

“I think we’re going to come up with something in between (those two approaches) that we think works for us,” Shine said Wednesday on the committee’s regularly scheduled virtual meeting. “Obviously, some of the concerns from the EEA and DESE are going to be checking (in the boys’ game), the body contact, and how much that is (allowed). That’s going to be an issue. Locker room (social distancing) is going to be an issue, along with (social distancing on) the benches — how many players are allowed to be on your bench. You may have to separate kids; you may have to extend benches in some rinks, maybe have two or three layers behind each other in other rinks. These are the things that we have to talk about. We have to get on this very quickly.

“We’ll talk about some of these modifications (in the subcommittee). We’ll get information to you that we already have and see what people think is realistic. An example would be: Does a player have to wear a facemask the entire time they’re on the bench and on the ice? That’s a simple question. The medical people are going to push for masks to be worn, simple as that. If we want to play we’re going to have to adjust to what the medical people want.”

Shine noted that hockey has the added complication of relying almost solely on town-owned or privately owned rinks that would need to be on board with any physical modifications to layouts of benches or locker rooms. Those rinks also need to start blocking out ice time for games and practices.

“High school hockey is not the problem, it’s the solution,” Shine said. “We want to keep our kids playing on our teams. We can control these (health) issues within schools. If these kids don’t play here, they’re going to go play somewhere else and we’re not going to have control over it. These kids are going to be coming back to our schools after weekend tournaments (with club teams) where they will be involved with many other kids from other states and we’re not going to have any control.

“We have to figure out a way to get EEA on board with us. We’re going to do the right thing to get kids playing ice hockey in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under the MIAA.”

The coronavirus prematurely ended the 2019-20 high school hockey season on the eve of the state finals. That forced three local teams — the Hanover boys and the Canton boys and girls — to share their respective state crowns with the teams they had been scheduled to face at TD Garden on March 15.

Rules changes

The hockey committee voted to recommend a pair of rule changes for the next cycle that covers the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. The first would give leagues the option of increasing the length of periods from 15 minutes to 17 minutes; the second would make the 5-minute regular-season OT pilot program permanent.

Both proposals passed unanimously.

The 17-minute-period proposal was authored by Paul Spear, the Framingham AD and MSHCA president, and Dan Connolly, the Marshfield boys coach and MSHCA VP. Longer periods are permitted by National Federation of High Schools rules and are used by other hockey-mad states such as Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin.

Spear said providing the option of longer periods “would also be a welcome sign to the ice hockey coaches that our committee is doing something to combat the competition that they’re dealing with in terms of club (programs)” that offer more ice time per game.

The five-minute OT period, with teams skating 4-on-4, was adopted as a two-year pilot program starting last season. It awards no points for an OT loss, unlike the NHL system. Proponents note that reducing the number of ties will help with the MaxPreps ranking system that is going to be used for seeding the statewide tournament that is coming in 2021-22.

There are 46 proposed rule changes across all sports that are under review for the next cycle. Among the highlights: adding boys field hockey; adding an 8-on-8 tackle football option; adding pickleball; increasing the number of wrestling competitions allowed per week from two to three; and reducing the boys lacrosse regular season from a maximum of 18 games to 16.

Each individual sport committee must vote on all the proposed changes by Dec. 1. The proposals then must pass inspection by the Massachusetts Secondary School Athletic Directors Association (they must vote by Feb. 1) and the District Athletic Committees (they must vote by March 1). The MIAA Board of Directors (May 15) and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Council (June 1) are the last to weigh in.