AUGUSTA, Maine (WABI) – We were asked by a local parent of student-athletes about when the Maine Principal’s Association guidelines for fall sports were out of compliance with the state guidelines? It is what lead to the current delay of the fall sports season another week.

We received the state’s explanation via email. The MPA was given the state guidelines to create its guidelines, it did, and passed them last week. The state’s hope was the MPA guidelines could be adopted as the new community sports guidelines for those sports. State public health experts were not satisfied with the MPA guidelines and so they updated their state guidelines. They are in the process now of working with the MPA to establish a safe way to hold fall sports. Dr. Nirav Shah of the Maine CDC also gave some feedback about the state health approach to school sports…

“The thinking is let’s make sure we get the school part down pat before we go into the sports part,” says Shah, “Let’s get things like homeroom down. Making sure that the fundamentals are in place…. Making sure we can walk before we run both literally and metaphorically.

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