As a number of local high school athletic programs begin to prepare for the start of the new season at the end of the week, both the MIAA Soccer Committee and the MIAA Football Committee held meetings Tuesday to discuss the next steps in playing their respective seasons. Soccer has been approved for play in the “Fall Sports I” season that begins Sept. 18 and runs until Nov. 20, while football has been pushed back to the “Fall Sports II” season that will be held from Feb. 22 until April 25.
The local teams who will be playing soccer and other sports (golf, cross country and field hockey) in the “Fall Sports I” season include St. Mary’s, Bishop Fenwick, Lynnfield and St. John’s Prep. A number of Northeastern Conference schools — Peabody, Salem, Masconomet, Danvers and Beverly — have had their respective school committees approve the playing of sports during “Fall Sports I,” but as of now the NEC’s decision is to suspend all fall sports until the “Fall Sports II” season.
The Soccer Committee meeting largely dealt with the latest rule changes that were approved by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) and the Massachusetts Department of Secondary and Elementary Education (DESE) last month and how those rules will be implemented.
Richard Beaudoin of the Eastern Massachusetts Soccer Officials Association went over the major rule changes for the season this fall, including:
— Masks must be worn at all times unless not around an opponent or teammate
— No slide tackling
— No throw-ins
— No headers
— Goalkeeper cannot propel the ball over midfield
— Quarters not halves; end of Qs serve as mask breaks
Also brought up during the meeting was a new rule modification that concerns players and coaches arguing calls with officials. The new modification states that if any player moves toward an official to argue a call, they will be issued an automatic yellow card. If said player gets within six feet of an official to argue, the player will receive an automatic red card.
The Football Committee meeting was more concerned with how the next few months will pan out, as committee members discussed a range of topics including how many games could be played and what the season would be structured like.
One of the potential scenarios that was discussed Tuesday was allowing teams to begin conditioning work a week before the scheduled Feb. 22 start. That would lead to a seven-game regular season with the potential of playing two postseason games, whether regional or statewide.
In terms of the way the season would be structured, for fall 2021 the upcoming format calls for eight divisions and an eight-game regular season in which the top 16 teams would qualify for the playoffs. Milton football coach Steve Dembowski, a member of the Massachusetts State Football Coaches Association (MSFCA), said the association would like some input in deciding how things will be set up for this new football season in February.
But the decision on how to structure the season largely relies on the approval of the EEA and the DESE, who have set the safety modifications for all sports to this point. Dembowski said presenting the case to play football to the EEA earlier in the process wasn’t very fruitful.
“It was a rough process,” Dembowski said. “We were notified Friday afternoon that they would be meeting on a Tuesday morning. The (football coaches association) held an emergency meeting that Sunday and I felt that we came up with some great ideas and presented them to the EEA, but it was like the decision had already been made.”
Coaches are hoping the EEA will look to the almost three dozen states playing fall football and determine the sport can be played safely.
No official decisions were made at the Football Committee meeting except to set the date of the next meeting, which will take place October 14.
