12/10/20- Board of Control Confirms Decision to Start Winter Sports Practice December 14

December 10, 2020 2020-2021 News Releases

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 10, 2020

The Board of Control conducted a special meeting on Thursday morning, upholding its earlier decision by a 12-5 vote to begin practice for winter sports on Dec. 14th and regular-season competition on Jan. 4th. Prior to confirming the start of the winter sports season, the Board voted 12-5 to push back the dates for the boys’ and girls’ Sweet 16® to March 29-April 8 after narrowly defeating other alternative dates, with the event schedule and format to be finalized at a later date in consultation with Rupp Arena.

“These are extremely complex issues. Our Board has spent an extraordinary amount of time examining every aspect surrounding the resumption of sports, particularly those that are indoors and have extreme concerns from public health officials,” said KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett. “At the same time, there is significant data being shared about the need for students to be engaged with one another in traditional settings, be they the classroom or the athletic court or field.

“Trying to balance competing public health concerns has been a tremendous challenge all year. Just last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics published an article on the need to get kids back involved, while at the same time, the number of positive cases of coronavirus continues to be very high both in Kentucky and in other states. Finalizing the plan for going forward allows the member schools to use some local decision making in areas that are concerning and adopts a blueprint for the rest of the school year.”

On November 18th, the Board postponed all activity in the winter sports from November 20 through December 13 in congruence with the Governor’s order issued that same day. The cessation applied to all indoor interscholastic sports at all school levels, including but not limited to basketball, bowling, competitive cheer, dance, indoor track and field, swimming, and wrestling. By confirming its decision from November 18th, each of these sports and sport-activities will be permitted to resume activity on Monday.

Regular season competition may begin on Jan. 4th, though the Governor’s current order limits competition in the sport-activity of bowling due to the restrictions placed on bowling centers. The Association staff will communicate more details to the membership on Friday regarding the guidelines for winter sports and scheduling revisions. In the coming days and weeks, more details will be released as plans for postseason events continue to take shape.

“Our staff continues to be extremely agile in planning and adjusting to the problems of conducting competition during the pandemic,” added Tackett. “And our Board of Control continues to prioritize a full season for the spring sports and sport-activities during 2021. These schedule adjustments balance these priorities while also allowing for additional flexibility should the situation worsen again.”

A preliminary outline of the updated calendars and important dates for the winter and spring sports and sport-activities is listed below:

Sport or Sport-Activity	First Official Practice	First Official Contest	Number of Contests	Length of Season	Max Contests Per Week (1)	First Day of Postseason	Postseason Ends (week of)
Basketball	12/14/2020	1/4/2021	30	10 weeks	4	3/15/2021	4/5/2021
Wrestling	12/14/2020	1/4/2021	15	10 weeks	3	3/15/2021	3/22/2021
Swimming and Diving	12/14/2020	1/4/2021	15	13 weeks	3	4/5/2021	4/19/2021
Bowling	12/14/2020	1/4/2021	N/A	9 weeks	N/A	3/8/2021	3/22/2021
Dance	12/14/2020	1/4/2021	N/A	TBD	N/A	TBD	TBD
Cheer	12/14/2020	1/4/2021	N/A	TBD	N/A	TBD	TBD
Sport or Sport-Activity	First Official Practice	First Official Contest	Number of Contests	Length of Season	Max Contests Per Week (1)	First Day of Postseason	Postseason Ends (week of)
Tennis	2/15/21	3/8/21	22	10 weeks	4	5/17/21	5/31/21
Track and Field	12/14/20	1/18/21	19	18 weeks	2	5/24/21	6/7/21
Baseball	2/22/21	3/29/21	36	9 weeks	6	5/31/21	6/14/21
Fast Pitch Softball	2/22/21	3/29/21	36	9 weeks	6	5/31/21	6/14/21
Archery (2)	N/A	2/22/21	N/A	TBD	N/A	TBD	TBD
Bass Fishing (3)	N/A	2/22/21	N/A	TBD	N/A	TBD	TBD

In other action Thursday, the Board:

• Approved a request to immediately move Trimble County from District 29 into District 31 based on the endorsement of all involved schools;
• Recognized outgoing Board of Control members who stayed on in an advisory capacity when their terms expired in May of 2020 to aid and assist the association during the pandemic;
• Approved a slight change in the tie-breaker procedure for a three-team district to allow for the introduction of a tie-breaking mechanism among those teams should they choose:
  • If the teams vote to play twice and a two-way tie exists, the tie shall be broken by the second game played;
  • If the teams vote to play twice and a three-way tie exists, the tie shall be broken by the RPI as of the seeded district game deadline for that sport, unless a unanimous vote to adopt an alternate tiebreaker has been conducted within the district and that tie-breaker is on file with the Association;
  • If the teams vote to play once and a three-way tie exists (all teams 1-1), the tie shall be broken by the RPI as of the seeded district game deadline for that sport, unless a unanimous vote to adopt an alternate tiebreaker has been conducted within the district and that tie-breaker is on file with the Association.

– KHSAA –

About the Kentucky High School Athletic Association
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association was organized in 1917 and is the agency designated by the Kentucky Department of Education to manage high school athletics in the Commonwealth. The Association is a voluntary nonprofit 501(c)3 organization made up of 284 member schools both public and non-public. The KHSAA awards 215 state championships to 51 teams and 164 individuals in 13 sports and 6 sport-activities, funds catastrophic insurance coverage for its more than 106,000 rostered member school student-athletes, provides coaching education and sports safety programs for more than 12,000 coaches, and licenses and facilitates the distribution of training material for over 4,000 contest officials.

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