The Northeastern Conference won’t be playing sports until at least Nov. 30.
After a meeting late Monday between principals and athletic directors from all Northeastern Conference schools, the NEC voted to delay all fall sports until the “Fall II” floating season that takes place from Feb. 22 to April 25. The 12 schools in the conference — Lynn Classical, Lynn English, Swampscott, Saugus, Marblehead, Revere, Winthrop, Salem, Beverly, Danvers, Gloucester and new addition Masconomet — voted 9-0-3 to move fall sports. The three schools who abstained from the vote were Beverly, Danvers and Gloucester.
The main reason for the delay is that five school districts in the conference — Lynn, Saugus, Revere, Salem and Winthrop — are currently categorized as “red districts” and per the MIAA decision to restart sports last week, all the “red” schools going remote must postpone their entire fall seasons and play them during Fall II.
“We have been having a lot of discussions and we’ve been putting in a lot of work to get to this point,” said Classical athletic director Bill Devin. “At the end of the day, it’s about league unity and doing what’s best for everyone involved. It’s our job to protect all student-athletes.”
“We’re sticking together as a league and making this decision as a unit,” said English athletic director Dick Newton. “At the end of the day, we’re an academic institution first and we have to focus on getting the kids back safely before we can get sports up and running again.”
“With 10 of the 12 schools in the conference opening remotely, I think this just makes the most sense,” said Swampscott athletic director Kelly Farley. “There were plenty of legitimate concerns about playing a fall season, like getting transportation or officials and other things like that. I don’t blame people being upset and I get it, but we have to do what’s best for the student-athletes and everyone else involved.”
“Schools need to be opened safely before we even start talking about sports, so I think that’s what comes first here,” said Peabody athletic director Bob Bua. “It’s certainly disappointing for the student-athletes and the coaches and the parents, but we have to put safety first.”
In a release on the Masconomet school website, the NEC identified five main reasons for the vote to move fall sports:
– At this time, five NEC school communities are in the RED category and will not be able to participate in sports during the fall season. This is considerable in terms of non participation for the fall season, as the NEC is composed of 12 schools.
– Many of the NEC schools are starting the school year in Remote Learning. Several schools are starting with a phased in hybrid approach which will begin in Remote Learning. MIAA and DESE guidelines indicate that school committee approval is required for schools starting the year in Remote Learning for athletic participation.
– The focus at this time is opening schools as safely as possible. There will be time needed to ensure proper safeguards are in place as well as working through procedures for a safe return just for school. Time is needed to work out safety protocols for extracurricular activities.
– Connections for all students are critical, especially with the start of the school year during the most challenging of times and the loss of a spring sports season for many student-athletes.
– There will be opportunities for connections in the fall that are sport specific. These opportunities would need to follow EEA guidelines and it is the individual school’s responsibility to comply with this guidance.
There will be further meetings and collaboration regarding the logistics of moving fall sports to the Fall II season. There will also be opportunities for out-of-season coaching as approved by the MIAA for all fall sports, including football.
“I think the kids would get more out of the out-of-season coaching than they would out of playing some kind of adjusted version of soccer or volleyball that doesn’t involve contact,” said Farley. “It will be interesting to see what the (MIAA) Sports Medicine Committee comes out with in terms of how the sports will be played, because I think they won’t even look like the actual sport. In my opinion, it’s better to push it off and see if we can have a more normal fall season down the road.”
“It’s important for the coaches to be with their athletes because a lot of them serve as mentors and role models, so we want to provide everyone some kind of opportunity to meet this fall,” said Bua. “At the same time, there’s a lot that’s going to have to be worked out in terms of how practices will be set up. We’ll have to see what happens.”
