If high school athletics, particularly high school football, did not have enough to worry about, they now have state legislators as possible adversaries.
State Senator, and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Cleo Fields has asked the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) if it would be possible for them to suspend K through 12 athletic events through the month of December due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a letter written to BESE, Fields “requested that the board consider a suspension of ALL athletic activities this fall.”
Fields also requested the suspension also include “all activities of any kind that would include student in-person participation in a group setting, including conditioning, practice and team meetings.”
Fields also said in his letter that the issue of the health and safety of the children is “much too critical to leave these decisions up to the LHSAA, which is a private entity.”
Speaking to Geaux Preps, BESE President Sandy Holloway addressed the Fields letter saying that basically the board has no say so over any school district’s approach to athletics, although the board can make recommendations.
“Extra curricular activities is a decision made on a local level,” stated Holloway. “The board could adopt CDC rules, but going into a school and monitoring said rules is not going to happen.”
All of this comes on the heels of the Governor’s decision to hold off moving to Phase III of the opening of the state. During Phase III contact sports such as football are able to have scrimmages, matches, and 7-on-7 contests only within their own squad.
With the date of the switch to Phase III still unknown, time is winding down on when the season will begin. Coaches throughout the state have recently received a survey from the LHSAA that asks its member coaches for advice on how to have school sports in the 2020-2021 school year, if at all.
One question does ask how comfortable are the coaches on moving the season outside of the traditional season?
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Tracey Jagneaux
Sports Editor