The Florida High School Athletic Association decided in its Board of Directors meeting on Monday to carry forward with its planned 2020-2021 high school athletics season. This falls in line with the policies of the broader state government, which has been among the most resistant to any coronavirus-related shutdowns so far.
Swimming & diving is a fall sport in Florida, where the state has one of the first state championship meets in the country.
The meeting on Monday, a five-hour event via zoom, was prompted by the increasing counts of positive coronavirus cases in the state, which have been rising since early June. Over the last 7 days, Florida is averaging around 11,000 new positive tests per day. The last 3 weeks have also seen a rise in the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19.
The proposal approved by the board will allow teams to begin practicing on July 27 and hold “preseason classics” the week of August 10th. The board voted down 3 proposals that would have pushed the start of practices back until August 10, and also went against the advice of its own Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC).
The SMAC recommended specifically that football and volleyball, which it views as “high risk sports,” delay the start of practices.
Individual schools will still have the prerogative to delay the start of their teams’ sports season if they desire. Districts will make decisions about coronavirus testing, crowd sizes, and what happens when an athlete tests positive.
On Friday, the board will follow up with another meeting to review the information from the SMAC, and at that time will welcome input from the public.
After hours of negotiation, some flexibility was given to how teams end their seasons. For schools that want to progress through the normal state series, they will have a standard regular season and playoff schedule. Other schools will have the option to skip the state series and continue what would essentially be an extended regular season through the playoff periods. This could be an option in some of the hardest-hit areas of the state that might not begin competition until later in the year.
2020 Florida High School Swimming & Diving Calendar
Regular Season
- First Practice Date – July 27
- Meet Schedules Due – August 3
- Preseason Classic Competitions – August 10-15
- First Regular Season Meet Date – August 17
- Last Regular Season Playing Date for All Classes – October 17 (presuming participation in state series)
Classes 1A & 2A State Series
- Districts – October 26-31, 2020
- Regionals – November 2-7, 2020
- November 13-14, 2020
Classes 3A & 4A State Series
- Districts – October 19-24, 2020
- Regionals – October 26-31, 2020
- State – November 6-7, 2020
Other States
As the beginning of school years across the country draw 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.
- 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 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.
They pushed everything back to at least Aug 24th now
I’m a FHSAA meet official and would love to see all the kids back in the water, but have some mixed feelings;: 1.) A lot of pools are still closed or operating on limited schedules for club teams. In particular municipally-owned pools are being slow to open back up. That creates an uneven playing field for training, especially for the non-club swimmers. 2.) We haven’t received any detailed guidelines from the FHSAA as of yet, such as what USA Swimming issued a few weeks ago. Officials have been told they will not be responsible for enforcing the COVID-19 protocols; that it is up to the schools. (At most dual meets we’re lucky to have 2-3 officials and on more than… Read more »
https://t.co/kYeT8fKfx6?amp=1Yes
Honest question – are you ok?
You seem to be pushing this narrative to the point of not seeming like you’re doing well. I hope you are ok and your friends and family as well.
I’m great man. Thanks. I love it when truth becomes a narrative. Strange times. I hope you are well too.
Im fine, I would call a lot of what I see on the comments As opinions, editorials and interpretations, not so much a truth. Not much of what I read online would I consider a truth unless it’s well sourced and vetted.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/pdf/community_mitigation-sm.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1sMmehOSZ8hHRKEPJEP2hUbkXbNMlS4sGRqQ7s5iLWOpyfQDErd4Wg_SE
Pg 12 and 32 (graphs)from CDC planning guide in 2007. Our current response is nowhere in line with what was recommended then. What changed? Or is this not a properly vetted source?
https://www.wpbf.com/article/florida-coronavirus-map-hospital-beds-july-21/33379528#
This is the current situation in Florida. You need to start rethinking your stance, because there are real consequences for what you are advocating.
Each county/district are making their own decisions on a time-line. The FHSAA just gave them the chance to start on Monday.
Also, I know this is a swimming website, but view this from outside that prism and with an eye on the entirety of the Floridian high school student-athlete population. There’s quite a few of those whose lives are absolutely dependent on these sports happening (for more than just the actual game themselves). That cannot be understated. And honestly, it’s a much bigger issue than coronavirus for that same age bracket (and frankly, for those who would be mentoring them in those positions…given the likelihood of relationships + lack of children being vectors).
It should be noted that there are some individual counties in FL that are holding off on allowing school-sponsored practices.
https://www.wesh.com/article/orange-county-fall-sports-postponed/33380399
This is a tough call, but sadly I still think we are in a place where cancelling the season would have made more sense, or at the very least if they are going to continue it they should have some very tight rules in place about managing large group sizes, no crowds at events, etc. It’s a sad reality, and it’s frustrating because we really should not need to be in coronavirus semi-quarantine limbo forever. Other regions and countries have squashed it with diligence over a 4-8 week span, which then can enable more reopening. Giving up means more deaths, and of course it isn’t only about deaths but about serious health issues, like the ones that some swimmers’ parents… Read more »
Well, since the largest Florida teachers union, joined by the NAACP, just filed suit against the Governor over his executive order for school reopening, it may end up being a moot point, especially since the other big state hotspots — Texas and California — reversed themselves and have delayed on-site instruction. Most, if not all, HS coaches are also faculty, so it would be surprising if they bucked their own union.
A coordinated nationwide effort by teachers unions all in the best interest of the kids and not at all politically motivated!
The US continues to look more idiotic as we let politics, rather than science, hold back our kids. November can’t come soon enough.
I think we continue to look idiotic because the rest of the world has this thing pretty well under control and we still have people that won’t wear masks…
“There has been no recorded case of a teacher catching the coronavirus from a pupil anywhere in the world says Dr. Mark Woolhouse, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at University of Edinburgh”
I guess the US is special! Election year politics have gotten quite nasty it seems. Glad to see those teacher unions are all about the kids.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/health/coronavirus-children-schools.html
NYT. Laughable. When was the last time they reported news? As you can see from the chart in this thread .5% ages 9 and under and 2.2% ages 10-19. And again, these age groups may not be primarily vectors of transmission.
https://mobile.twitter.com/bpwhite_bio/status/1284655602652725248
ah yes, I forget…Twitter and a swim coach trumps experts and their studies every time…thanks for setting me straight. If your bet is that students won’t pass covid to their teachers based on the above quote and your twitter post, I’d love to take some of that action
That study also only included 2.7% people under the age of 20, in which a total of 2 (out of a few hundred in the age group, and a 5-figure population overall) “possibly” passed it on to a non-household member.
What are things actually like in Florida, DrSwimPhil? From your perspective.
Mortality rate is 1.4% and dropping each day. Hospitals are marking deaths as covid if they had covid in their system but died in stage 4 cancer or auto accident etc. Just ask a medical professional. CDC states that positive test could now also be the common cold or flu bc they share the same markers. They also state that based on seratology results, there are approximately 10x the # of infected that has been reported.
There’s been no recorded case of Santa being sighted, yet, those presents keep appearing 🤷♂️
Many jobs & professions hgave worked thru . Why are teachers so special? They could 1/2 The classes into AM / PM. Or 1 week on / off. ZOOM the sitting class.whilst the others view at home.
Man, I haven’t been on swimswam for more than 2 years but based on recent articles, this time peroid is the most 50-50 torn ive seen swimswam comment sections be.
Yeah there doesn’t rlly seem to be a majority at all
Politics
I was about to dislike because of the name, then I realized it said Braden so Im down
Braden — allegedly — can do serial 7s backward from 100. So there’s that.
That’s right! I have a big bowl of serial every morning for breakfast to keep my backwards counting skills sharp.
thank you Danny
Pre-election 2016 was as bad or worse. Most of it fulminated around the Lochte saga and what it meant to be “Murican. A lot of “snowflake” language and the political language of the time. A key commenter of the day was CROOKEDHILLARY, so you get the idea. Would love to revisit some of those comments and see what they think now. Now instead of the Lochte saga, it’s COVID-19 as the context.
CROOKEDHILLARY was a legend and you can’t deny, she was crooked.