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Date: 9/2/2020
EASTHAMPTON – Easthampton High School will participate in athletics this fall.
After the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Board of Directors approved a plan to resume sports for the 2020-21 school year with a fall season starting Sept. 18, the School Committee gave the go-ahead for the city’s students to participate.
Easthampton Public Schools’ phased reopening plan will keep students learning exclusively remotely from Sept. 14 to Oct. 9 before moving to the next phase in which special populations will be phased into the building. The final phase would move all student to hybrid learning on a tentative date of Nov. 4. The move from one phase to another would be based on local and state health assessments, the first of which will take place Sept. 22.
The MIAA’s approved a plan submitted by the organization’s COVID-19 Task Force that called for four athletic seasons, starting with the fall from Sept. 18 to Nov. 20. The fall season includes sports such as soccer, gymnastics, field hockey, girls volleyball and golf.
However, football, along with fall cheerleading and unified basketball, will be moved to a “floating season” between the winter and spring seasons from Feb. 22 to April 25, 2021. The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) identified football, competitive cheer and basketball as high risk sports in its safety standards and guidance released on Aug. 17. In the meantime, participants in those sports may practice in accordance with EEA cohort conditions.
The winter season will run from Nov. 30 to Feb. 21, 2021 and the spring season will commence April 26 and run through July 3.
The Board of Directors also agreed to allow athletes to participate in all four seasons.
The MIAA will not host a postseason. Locally, the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference has made no announcement on whether there are plans for regional tournaments.
In a letter to the community, Easthampton High School Principal Bill Evans said the School Committee decided the cross country, golf, soccer and volleyball teams would be allowed to conduct practices and participate in games.
The status of the football and cheer programs would be addressed by the athletic director and coaches.
“The MIAA has put forth a series of guidelines to ensure the safety of all student-athletes, coaches, referees, and spectators. These guidelines, as well as others assigned by the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference (PVIAC), the district, the school, or coaches must be adhered to at all times for student-athletes to participate and for competitions to be held. Further information specific to each sport will be provided by coaches,” he wrote. “If you have further questions or concerns, please reach out to your coach, Athletic Director Brian Miller (brmiller@epsd.us), or myself (wevans@epsd.us).”
Any athlete intending to participate in athletics will be required to sign a waiver “acknowledging that they are choosing to play and are aware of the inherent risks with regard to COVID-19,” Evans said.
Athletes must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test prior to the start of practices on Sept. 19 and must also complete a checklist to ensure they are symptom-free before participating in competition.