Washington state schools hit pause, push start of fall sports season back two weeks
Fall high school sports in Washington have officially been delayed. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association Executive Board announced the two-week delay Tuesday evening, pushing the start of football season to Sept. 5 and all other sports to Sept. 7.
“The Board will continue to work with staff, member schools and state agencies to monitor the impact of COVID-19,” the release states. The Board plans to make its next statement concerning the start of fall sports on July 22nd following its next scheduled meeting. In the interim, a committee of Board members, staff, and select WIAA stakeholders will work to create a fall schedule with the adjusted start dates.”
It’s the first in what could be multiple delays to the fall high school sports season and is in line with Governor Inslee’s two-week pause on counties moving into different phases of the state’s reopening plan as the coronavirus spread has shown no signs of slowing down over the past month.
The WIAA released its return-to-play guidelines last month, giving the first indication of recommended safety precautions for schools to put into place, as well as which sports would be allowed to resume in which phases. Football, considered a ‘high-risk’ sport, was not included in the document, though presumably can resume — in some capacity — in Phase 4. Pierce and King Counties are currently in Phase 2.
While less populous areas of the states will likely be able to resume football on time, the Seattle-Tacoma area will be more hampered in trying to bring a return-to-normalcy with high school sports. A full fall football season, with live games against other schools, is in jeopardy at this point.
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 9:35 AM.
