It was something of an inevitable decision based on the circumstances, but the news stung nonetheless when the Lynn Tech and KIPP Academy communities learned that the Commonwealth Athletic Conference (CAC) announced Tuesday that the league would be delaying all fall sports until the “Fall II” floating season that will begin in late February. Fall sports that have been moved include football, boys and girls soccer and girls volleyball.
“It’s a tough decision to make and we know it’s disappointing, but we have to do what’s best for everyone involved,” said CAC league president Don Heres. “With the fact that we have several schools in communities that can’t play in addition to the new rules modifications put in place, we feel that it would be best to hold off and try to play these sports at a later date.”
The CAC is made up of Lynn Tech, KIPP Academy, Chelsea, Essex Tech, Academy of Notre Dame, Minuteman Tech, Greater Lawrence Tech, Greater Lowell Tech, Shawsheen Tech, Fellowship Christian, Mystic Valley, Northeast Metro, Nashoba Tech and Whittier Tech.
With multiple schools in the league residing in designated “red” areas — such as Tech (Lynn), KIPP (Lynn) and Chelsea (Chelsea) — the idea for the delay was mainly to remain together as a league. Northeast Metro, where Heres is the athletic director and head football coach, is under the jurisdiction of Revere, which is another “red” district.
“Some of the schools have their hands tied at this point due to their designation, so really it’s about staying together as a league,” said Heres.
School districts designated as “red” based on the Department of Public Health‘s (DPH) metric of average daily cases per 100,000 residents and which therefore have their high school students learning remotely at the start of the season, must postpone their entire season, including practices, until the floating season later in the year.
If a non-red district begins with remote learning, the district’s school committee will vote to determine when the school will play. Districts designated as yellow, green, or unshaded based on the DPH metric that nonetheless have their high school students learning remotely at the start of the season may similarly delay their season to the floating season if they vote to do so.
There is a chance that some of the schools in the league that reside in “green” areas, such as Greater Lowell (Andover) and Shawsheen (Billerica) will break off and try to play some independent golf matches and cross country meets, but that is still a tentative plan.
“We’re trying to remain as unified as possible in this decision, but it’s tough,” said Heres. “We know that there’s almost no way we’re getting on golf courses in early March and we know that it’ll be tough to run as well, so doing those sports in the fall makes sense. At the same time, there are some schools in the conference that simply don’t have a choice but to wait.”
As far as the work ahead, it’s only just beginning. The administrations now have all of the latest safety modifications for fall sports, which were approved by the MIAA COVID-19 Task Force last week, and now they can focus on putting plans into action. The league will also continue to meet in regards to what to do about winter sports, which are slated to begin at the end of November.
“There’s still a lot that needs to be worked out and there are still a lot of unanswered questions, and things can change quickly,” said Heres. “The best thing I can say, because I certainly don’t have all the answers, is for everyone to stay vigilant, stay healthy and we’ll see what happens. We’d love to provide these sports for our students, but safety is the most important thing.”
