That season, which is supposed to start on Nov. 30, according to the MIAA’s new “four-season” plan, is shrouded in mystery right now as the state association awaits updated COVID-19 health guidelines from the state.

If you’re wondering about the fate of winter-season high school sports tournaments, you’re not alone.

Dan Buron is curious, too.

That’s because he’s the Bridgewater-Raynham High athletic director and he’s got some scheduling issues he needs to work out.

Thursday’s MIAA Tournament Management Committee virtual meeting was mostly devoted to approving the alignment mechanisms for four sports – cross country, indoor track, golf and boys hockey – for the switch to statewide tournaments beginning in the 2021-22 school year.

There was time at the end, however, for the 16 voting members to discuss plans for the winter. That season, which is supposed to start on Nov. 30, according to the MIAA’s new “four-season” plan, is shrouded in mystery right now as the state association awaits updated COVID-19 health guidelines from the state. Earlier this week, the MIAA Board of Directors was told that those new guidelines are not expected until the first week of November.

That uncertainty led Buron on Thursday to pose a simple question – Should he schedule regular-season competition right up until the end of the winter season (Feb. 21) or should he block out time at the end of the window to allow for playoffs?

The answer, of course, is that no one knows yet. But the TMC members agree that answers need to come soon because winter tournaments, if they are allowed to happen, can’t be cobbled together at the last minute.

The MIAA’s COVID-19 Task Force, in consultation with state health officials, formulated a plan for the fall season that did not include any playoffs, sectional or state. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the rest of the school year is headed down a similar path.

“The winter tournaments, the Fall II tournaments and the spring tournaments are very much on the table,” said Dennis-Yarmouth principal Paul Funk, a member of both the TMC and the COVID-19 Task Force. “It’s in the hands of the TMC to start planning for those. The only recommendation that came out of the COVID-19 Task Force was not to have a tournament for Fall I. I think as a group we need to start thinking about how would we have a tournament (for the winter).”

Funk said the COVID-19 Task Force is planning to meet again this month to start mapping out a winter landscape.

“I’m in favor of a winter tournament, a Fall II tournament and a spring tournament,” Funk said. “I made it clear on the Task Force that I did not want to see those eliminated at that point. I would welcome, when I go to meet with (the Task Force), (having some recommendations from) the Tournament Management Committee about how you could run a tournament in a shortened period of time. You might have to play three games a week.

“If you start the conversation early you’re going to be better off.”

The TMC has scheduled its next meeting for Oct. 21, after the nine district athletic committees across the state have met.

Scheduling complications for the winter are numerous.

Westborough AD Johanna DiCarlo noted that her school is planning to have two-week blocks of remote learning after both Thanksgiving and Christmas, allowing students who may have attended large family gatherings to self-isolate; that impacts her ability to schedule games in those windows.

Scott Paine, the Hull AD who is a member of both the MIAA ice hockey committee and the COVID-19 Task Force, said he is concerned about coordinating rinks for possible playoff games. “The facilities that we use for tournaments for hockey are flexible and they want to hold the tournaments,” Paine said, “but as that time gets closer, their ability to be flexible will become less and less. I think we need to get on this pretty quickly.”

Jim O’Leary (St. John’s Prep) advised his fellow TMC members to “go back to your districts and your leagues and see what their appetite is for tournaments and what type of tournament they think is important. That’s the first thing we have to look at. The number of days you need to run a state tournament is much different than (the time frame for running) just a sectional tournament. We have to make that decision rather quickly about the venues.

“We’re not going to go to (TD) Garden (which usually hosts EMass basketball semifinals and hockey state championship games). We don’t know if we’ll get into colleges (for basketball and swimming state finals, for example). We have to make decisions about where we have (tournament games if they are going to happen) – whether it’s the highest seed (hosts games) all the way through (thereby doing away with neutral sites). There are a lot of layers to this. Those questions have to be asked at (the district) level.”

Buron’s final take on the matter: “I’m going to tell my group (in District 8) to keep those (last) two weeks (of the winter season window) open for now (for potential playoffs). It could change and we’d have to add games later on if there is no tournament, but the membership down here is looking for some type of guidance as to what the length of the regular season will look like.”

Eric McHugh writes for the Patriot Ledger of Gannett.