In a recent update, the Wyoming High School Activities Association (WHSAA) has announced its decision that “educational based activities” will continue as planned this fall. The announcement states that practices will start up again as early as Monday, Aug. 10 for sports including golf, tennis, and football. The state reported 29 new cases of COVID-19 on July 26, 2020, bring their current total to 2,475.
Swimming, along with cross country and tennis, is among other sports included in this decision. As of the date of the announcement, the WHSAA lists the following dates for the 2020-2021 swim season:
- Girls’ Swimming & Diving
- First Practice: August 17th, 2020
- First Meet: August 27th, 2020
- State Meet: November 5th – 7th, 2020
- Boys’ Swimming & Diving
- First Practice: November 30th, 2020
- First Meet: December 10th, 2020
- State Meet: February 18th – 20th, 2021
With their championships meet still intact, the Laramie Lady Plainsmen woman’s swim team will vie for a repeat victory at this year’s meet. In 2019, head coach Tom Hudson lead the girls to their sixth title. The Laramie boys’ swim team will also have a chance to defend their title, having won the 2020 crown.
The schedule, however, is likely to change as a meeting for August 3rd has been set by the association in order to discuss plans to reschedule competitions to allow for smaller-sized events.
In addition to the announcement, the WHSAA cautioned its constituents;
“Please do not be selfish, which could make our state have to backtrack as some of the other states are currently having to do. This will only delay or make us go through another scenario like we had in the spring.”
The association also attached resources “that have been sent to the schools for returning student/athletes back to campus”
OTHER STATES
As the beginning of school years across the country draws nearer, high school state associations are rolling out decisions about fall sports across the country this week.
- California announced on Monday that it would push all of its sports until after the conclusion of the fall semester.
- Florida has announced that it will move forward with its fall sports seasons, which includes swimming & diving, as planned. Many schools and districts have balked, with some, like swimming power Pine Crest School, canceling their fall seasons, and others, like Miami-Dade County, threatening to leave the FHSAA altogether.
- The GHSA in Georgia announced via a 12-0 vote that it would postpone football by 2 weeks, while other sports remain on schedule. That means that the football regular season will begin September 4 instead of August 21. After an 8-4 vote against remaining on the schedule, Jasper Jewell, a member of the board and the athletic director of Atlantic Public Schools, said he was afraid that his district might cancel fall sports altogether if the season wasn’t delayed. That, and other discussions, wound up pushing unanimous support toward a two-week delay.
- South Carolina and North Carolina both postponed their fall high school sports schedules until September last week. South Carolina also has a very early State Championship meet, scheduled for early October.
- Michigan announced that it would plan to begin fall sports as usual, which includes girls swimming & diving. Practices for all fall sports besides football can begin August 12. The school has remained open to the possibility of having to suspend those sports during the season, at which point they’d be rescheduled for later in the year. Indoor pools in Michigan are still not open.
- Washington pushed all fall sports to the spring semester.
- The Virginia High School League Executive Committee voted to apply a condensed schedule in the reopening of high school sports on Monday, including moving all fall sports back to spring.