Cloud said preseason fall practice would have started for middle school athletes during the week of Aug. 17, but many athletes won’t report until the start of school, which has been postponed until Monday because of the coronavirus.

It means many athletes would have had scant preseason work before the fall seasons were scheduled to begin in the second week of September.

“Our primary concern is for the health and safety of our students. By delaying the middle schools programs, we feel that we can make their participation safety and more enjoyable while we are dealing with the current pandemic,” Cloud said in a TPS news release.

“This delay will also help our students academically as they begin the fall semester in a distance-learning mode,” he said.

Fall sports teams will continue to participate in their offseason weight and conditioning programs until the start of the winter seasons for basketball, swimming and wrestling. By OSSAA rule, winter programs may begin practicing Oct. 1.

Carver, as a Booker T. Washington feeder school, isn’t affected by the change because its programs compete in the Frontier Conference against suburban neighbors such as Bixby, Broken Arrow, Jenks, Union, Owasso, Sand Springs and Sapulpa.

The district’s nine other middle schools compete among themselves to decide city championships.

The Oklahoma City and Putnam City districts also have postponed fall middle school activities until the spring, Cloud said.

The new face of football: Everything you need to know about the Tulsa area’s 2020 high school season