FHSAA Athletic Directory Advisory Committee weighs in on start of fall sports

The Florida High School Athletic Association took the next step toward starting fall sports amid the coronavirus pandemic with the meeting of its Athletic Directors Advisory Committee on Wednesday.

No official vote or action was taken, but members of the committee received input offered from the fall sports advisory committees that met last week. The athletic directors also discussed the plans for starting sports in their own counties.

Members of the ADAC ranked the FHSAA’s three options for starting the year in order of preference. Thirteen of the 15 on the committee picked Option 1 or Option 3 as their first choice.

More:FHSAA creates 3 options for delayed sports in 2020-21

Option 1 is to begin fall practices as currently planned on Aug. 24 with slightly shortened regular seasons and keep the state playoffs the same. Option 3 is to push back the start of all sports until as late as Nov. 30 and condense the three sports regular seasons (fall, winter, spring) to about five weeks each before the playoffs.

Option 2 would allow schools to start any time after August, at a date they determine, and would eliminate statewide playoffs in fall sports.

See the full details of each option at the end of this article.

“We’re trying to do whatever we can to get these kids some kind of athletic experience,” said Okeechobee High School athletic director Kenny Buckner, who serves on the ADAC. “Are we going to be able to provide a whole lot? We don’t know.”

Nothing from Wednesday’s meeting is binding. The FHSAA will include the input from all its advisory committees, including the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee which meets Aug. 11, when it presents its three plans to its board of directors for a final vote on Aug. 14.

In July, the sports medicine committee created a report that deemed starting football and volleyball unsafe because those sports present a high risk of spreading the coronavirus. The board of directors relied on the SMAC report when voting to delay the start of fall practices from July 27 to Aug. 24.

The SMAC recommended that schools do not start sports until the positivity rate of COVID-19 tests is 5% or lower in its county, a suggestion the board opted against. On Monday, the positivity rate statewide was 9.1% according to the Florida Department of Health, although the rate varies widely by county.

Buckner said he wouldn’t be surprised if the SMAC recommends pushing back the start of sports even further than Aug. 24 based on current coronavirus numbers.

In the FHSAA’s Option 1, football teams could opt-in or out of the state series (tournament). All football teams would earn an automatic berth into the playoffs regardless of how many games they’ve played.

Buckner said, based on conversations from the ADAC meeting, he believes up to 80 percent of teams in the state will opt out of the state series.

Many school districts are eliminating athletic travel outside their area this fall, Buckner said, leading to those teams avoiding the playoffs. Leon County Schools in Tallahassee has banned outside travel, while the teams in the Treasure Coast area (Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties) will only play each other.

“Right now that’s a saving grace for us to try to save some kind of normalcy and get some games in,” said Jessica Upchurch, who is AD at Sebastian River in Indian County and also is on the ADAC.

Polk County Schools athletic director Dan Talbot is on the Athletic Directors Advisory Committee representing the Florida Athletic Coaches Association. He said he spoke with all of the fall sports advisory committees before Wednesday and that the golf, cross country, bowling, volleyball and football coaches are in favor of Option 1.

The swimming coaches want Option 3, Talbot said, because of the lack of facilities available for their sport. Option 3 would move swimming and golf – sports that play at venues outside the school – to the spring.

"If you look at (the ADAC members’) top two choices, 13 wanted Option 3 in their top two, and eight people wanted Option 1 in their top two," Talbot said.

Talbot noted that the FHSAA's Justin Harrison told them that he didn't want people hung up on dates. He just said he threw dates out there. He wanted people to embrace the concept of Option 3, not being tied to what the actual dates were.

In the plan the FHSAA put out last week, Option 3 called for fall sports to start Nov. 30, winter to begin Feb. 15, and spring to start April 26. However, Upchurch also said the FHSAA is flexible with those dates.

The (Lakeland) Ledger sports reporter Roy Fuoco contributed to this report