CHAPEL HILL — The future of high school sports amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic remains up in the air, said North Carolina High School Athletic Association Commissioner Que Tucker Wednesday, July 8 during a Zoom media briefing.
Tucker held the nearly hour-long media briefing mainly to address inevitable questions about the future of high school sports for the 2020-21 academic year— particularly fall sports—as the current NCHSAA schedule has fall sports beginning Aug. 1 with the first week of high school football slated for Aug. 21.
While reporters and other media members had plenty of scheduling questions for Tucker, what resulted was no definitive action as Tucker admitted that until North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper makes his announcement regarding public schools reopening, there isn’t much that can be finalized with regard to high school sports.
“Until we know the plan for how schools will reopen, we will continue to work behind the scenes to determine the best path forward,” Tucker said.
The NCHSAA remains in Phase 1 which prohibits physical contact between student-athletes and coaches and limits any practices primarily to conditioning.
Tucker reiterated that the NCHSAA can make no announcements on school reopening plans but added that she still couldn’t rule out fall sports starting as scheduled.
“We are prepared to move the start of fall sports but we’re not doing that today,” Tucker said. “I’m not going to tell you today that Aug. 1 is off the table until I can put another date in its place.”
If fall sports are delayed, it could also mean no traditional postseason play this season. Tucker said if the beginning of fall sports is delayed to Oct. 1 or later, seasons could be drastically shortened and could end with a conference championship rather than state playoffs.
“We are doing everything in our power to offer as much of a season as possible for each of our sports,” Tucker said.
Tucker added that she hopes venues could reach at least half capacity for games and added that member schools will have to provide the NCHSAA guidance on if they can afford to play with limited attendance.
Tucker confirmed that there is currently no plan in place to swap fall and spring sports schedules.
Near the end of the briefing, Tucker said it’s unlikely that there will be a rule change to give student-athletes extra eligibility for a missed season due to COVID-19. She said the NCHSAA enforces eligibility rules already in place from the State Board of Education.
“Our goal is to get our students back in school, first of all,” Tucker said. “Sports don’t exist if that doesn’t happen. We have heard everyone wants a plan. We have many plans. We promise that we will do the best we can to offer students an opportunity to get on the field to play the games that they enjoy and love.”