Widely criticized for its lack of decision-making amid the COVID-19 crisis, the Florida High School Athletic Association needed 4-1/2 hours Monday to vote to maintain the status quo.
After a series of convoluted motions, deliberations and even a bit of finger-pointing, the association’s board of directors approved a motion to keep the fall sports calendar intact for now, with some flexibility inserted.
Next Monday remains the first permissible day fall sports teams may begin practice. However, the motion ― put forth by Wewahitchka football coach Bobby Johns ― will give schools in COVID-19 hot spots flexibility in regular-season scheduling.
The motion, passed by a 10-5 vote, gives the association’s staff authority to come up with a specified date for schools to declare their intention of whether they’ll enter the state playoff series for a given fall sport.
Those who opt out, presumably because they can’t begin their seasons until October or November, may keep playing regular-season games through the playoff season. Those who wish to enter the playoffs despite a very abbreviated regular season also may do so.
Some who opposed the motion, such as Plant athletic director Lauren Otero, did so only because they wanted more flexibility in a given sports season, with no predetermined end date.
The football state series, for instance, ends Dec. 12. Otero wanted football teams whose autumns were compromised to be able to play into 2021 if necessary.
“Schools should have the ability to play when they choose to play, up until the end of the school year, which is an extreme,” said Otero, the new association board president.
The vote flew in the face of a recommendation by the association’s sports medicine advisory committee to delay the start of football and girls volleyball “until further notice.”
The committee chairperson, Dr. Jennifer Maynard of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, outlined the sprawling recommendations to the group at the meeting’s outset. Maynard also said the committee advises neither fans nor band members at sporting events for now.
The committee also outlined a series of benchmarks it suggests be met before sports could resume: a downward trajectory of COVID-19 cases, a positive-case rate of less than 5 percent for at least 28 days, and two weeks of practices before games are held.
The board will meet again later this week to discuss ― and perhaps implement ― some or all of the recommendations. At least a few board members seemed on board with the recommendations.
“A month ago, I would’ve said this is a problem for Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County,” said board member Mark Schusterman, co-athletic director at Miami’s Riviera Prep. “But the people that are living in a dream world, (believing) that the rest of this state is not being affected by this, are not seeing reality. We need to delay sports.”
A state association staffer said as many as 4,000 viewers ― seeking some fall sports direction from the board ― were tuned in to Monday’s meeting at some point on a virtual platform. That perceived lack of direction prompted Otero at one point to challenge the leadership of the association staff, led by executive director George Tomyn.
The staff had developed a plan giving schools one of three optional time windows for starting the respective fall sports season, but that plan was not backed by Tomyn and unanimously denied by the board Monday.
“Not to say (leadership) isn’t there in some manner, but it has not been displayed,” Otero said.
“We all know that we serve on this board and have full-time jobs doing something else — not to make the day-to-day operations of the (Florida High School Athletic Association). So I am asking directly as myself, that there is an increase in the leadership demonstrated by the (association) staff.”
Monday evening’s decision by the association came only hours after Georgia’s prep sports governing body voted unanimously to push back the start of its football season by two weeks, to Sept. 4. The modest postponement allows the full 10-game regular season and five-week postseason to remain intact.
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