When professional sports went on hiatus and collegiate athletics canceled remaining winter events, and some even called off all spring sports, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) canceled any remaining winter sporting events. As for the spring sports, the MIAA Board of Directors set a target start date of April 27.
The MIAA’s target date to start the spring season has now changed.
The MIAA Board of Directors held a conference call regarding the matter on March 30. The 19 members of the board approved a spring season that will begin “no earlier than May 4” (in keeping with the state’s scheduled return to school). The MIAA still hopes to hold sectional tournament games with the change, though there may not be 2020 state champions in any sport.
The MIAA Board of Directors is set to vote this week on the proposed date of conclusion — presumably June 27, with June 28 being up for consideration if weather or other factors pose a problem. With the changes, crowning sectional titles seems possible.
“I think it does provide a little more comfort having the legs to go a little further back into June,” Old Colony Athletic Director Matt Trahan, also a member of the MIAA Board of Directors. “Because I think if it wasn’t (pushed back), I think it would have all been a little more rushed. And I think it provides the kids with the possibility of having a state tournament.”
Another change that has been made by the MIAA is the minimum number of games that need to be played in order to qualify for tournament play. The minimum is now eight, and the maximum is 12. With the change, both the Mayflower and the South Coast conferences have made changes to their already abbreviated schedules.
“The SCC has reconfigured all the schedules to fit within the (designated) time frame, with anywhere from an eight to 12 games scheduled, depending on how easy it was to fit those games and cover what we needed,” Old Rochester Athletic Director Bill Tilden said. “With the teams that only have eight, (they) can definitely find some other opponents (outside of their conference) to slide in. But some are a little bit trickier than others because we don’t have the same number of teams in every sport.
“Not all (SCC schools) have lacrosse and (not) all… have tennis. So (schedules) didn’t figure out the same way. But we’ve already updated the schedules, they are online, they’ve been given to the assigners so we have officials lined up for all those games. So right now, our plan is that if the governor lets us, we’re going to start on May 4 and, you know, rock and roll ASAP.”
The Mayflower Conference will take the same approach as the SCC, starting with a schedule of conference games and only scheduling non-league opponents as needed – and if available.
ORR is a member of the SCC and Old Colony is a member of the Mayflower.
Even if school starts back up and the MIAA gives programs the green light to get started, there is still no guarantee all schools will open their doors right away. In those cases, sports would once again be impacted.
“We just want to get some competitions to these kids and get it back to normal – if that’s a possibility for us,” Tilden said after spending Tuesday morning with fellow staff members cleaning out over 800 student lockers.
Trahan hopes to do everything he can to make sure student-athletes have a chance for some normalcy when school starts back up.
“If (the May 4 start date) got voted down, my thought was we were either going to run scrimmages with other teams or run intramurals. Because, for me, I’ve got to give the kids something. They need something at this point.”
Sports Roundup
By Nick Friar