While admitting that plans can change, the Ohio High School Athletic Association is emphasizing a memo sent to schools earlier this week stating that it's proceeding as if the fall sports season will occur as planned amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
"The OHSAA is proceeding as if fall sports will occur as planned, meaning official practices will begin on August 1 and we will conduct our usual series of tournaments in our 10 fall sports," reads the statement, which the OHSAA re-posted on Sunday afternoon. "As we have all seen during the pandemic, those plans can be modified or cancelled quickly."
The OHSAA's statement comes amid rumors and reports of fall sports potentially being switched to next spring. On Sunday, ThisWeekSports.com published a story that reported that a group of high school football coaches in Central Ohio have issued a proposal calling for the upcoming fall football season to be moved to the spring, in addition to other changes to the high school sports calendar.
Speaking at a press briefing last week, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said the next month will be critical in determining whether or not the fall sports season will be saved with coronavirus numbers rising both locally and nationally.
"What we’re aiming to do here is to have fall where we have kids back in school, have fall and do fall sports -- have Friday night football," DeWine said at his press briefing on Thursday. "What we do in the next 30 days or so is frankly going to determine how that all works out."