Yet another domino came tumbling down Tuesday night as the Saugus School Committee voted unanimously in a virtual meeting to approve the playing of fall sports in the immediate “Fall Sports I” season that begins Friday, Sept. 18. The committee approved play for boys and girls soccer, cross country, golf and field hockey.
Saugus Athletic Director Terri Pillsbury made it clear that starting immediately on Sept. 18 is not a possibility due to the fact that coaches for some sports still needed to be hired and other logistical issues needed to be worked out. Pillsbury pointed to Sept. 28 as a potential date for practices to start.
It’s possible that the school committee heard the cries of student-athletes and supporters who gathered outside of the Roby Administrative Building in Saugus to voice their support for fall sports Tuesday night.
Less than two weeks ago, a number of NEC schools gathered in downtown Danvers to protest the decision by the conference’s principals to postpone fall sports until the “Fall Sports II” season in late February. The NEC principals voted, 9-0-3, to postpone all fall sports.
At the time of that decision, there were five NEC communities — Lynn, Saugus, Salem, Revere and Winthrop — that were designated as red districts that would be forced to postpone all fall sports until the “Fall Sports II” season, which is set for Feb. 22 to April 25.
However, since then, both Saugus and Salem have moved into the yellow designation that would require a school committee vote on whether to play in September. All of the other NEC schools — Peabody, Beverly, Danvers, Gloucester, Masconomet and Marblehead — are designated as either green or unshaded.
Marblehead was the first community to say that it would explore avenues for holding sports in the Fall Sports I season, voting unanimously in a school committee meeting last week to give the principal and athletic director permission to do so. There was no commitment made by Marblehead to play sports in the Fall Sports I season, only to explore potential ways to safely play this fall.
Since then, school committees in Peabody, Danvers, Beverly, Salem and Masconomet have all voted to proceed with sports in the “Fall Sports I” season. Gloucester plans to hold a vote at its school committee meeting on Wednesday night.
