C.O. athletic director breaks down summer sports schedule amid coronavirus
(Update: adding comments from local athletic director, links to OSAA practice guidelines)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Coronavirus put an early halt to the end of 2019-20 high school winter sports, and led to the cancellation of the entire spring season. However, it looks like high school sports may be back on track to resume limited activities on campus in a couple of weeks.
The Oregon School Activities Association's calendar year just ended earlier this week, on Memorial Day. OSAA also said the use of all on-campus facilities and player-coach interaction should be suspended through at least Memorial Day.
Now that date has passed, and OSAA did not extend the suspension. That means coaches can once again communicate with their players about summer practices, in preparation for the 2020-21 athletic school year.
But the practices will look a little different, for now.
Gov. Kate Brown's Executive Order states school facilities must stay shut down until at least June 30. However, OSAA released information to athletic directors across the state that indicate schools may actually be able to open earlier than that.
"OSAA sent out some communication that kind of clarified that June 30 was the date that captures basically everyone's end of school year in Oregon,” Crook County High School Athletic Director Rob Bonner told NewsChannel 21 Thursday. “However, if you end sooner, you can get back into your facilities sooner."
Most Central Oregon high schools end their academic year on June 11. The way OSAA puts it, June 12 is when they can reopen their facilities.
In the meantime, coaches can still organize practices, but they have to be off-campus. They must meet the strict guidelines outlined by OSAA, which says: All students and coaches should get screened daily for symptoms of COVID-19, including a temperature check; weights should be wiped down between uses; players cannot share equipment, like soccer balls or tackling dummies.
Bonner said the Crook County High School football team already plans on resuming practice next week at a local park. He said if it makes sense for other Central Oregon programs to wait, then they should.
"The worst thing that we could do is push the issue and that causes us to come back later in the fall,” Bonner said. “Nobody wants that. So we're going the best we can for our communities and we're taking guidance from our district office."
As for what the high school sports world will look like in the fall? Bonner said, “I have no idea,” and that OSAA and Gov. Kate Brown's office would likely give the same answer.
