Board of Ed examines re-entry scenarios for school sports

PINE PLAINS — While discussing the various logistics associated with reopening for the 2020-21 school year, the Pine Plains Board of Education (BOE) began its meeting on Wednesday, July 17, with an update from Athletic Director Robert Scott regarding how next year’s sports seasons might fare once the district reopens.

BOE members gathered for the meeting via video conferencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Superintendent of Schools Martin Handler invited Scott to go over how the fall coaching and sports season may look. 

Scott said he’d had two Zoom meetings so far with his fall coaches. At the moment, he explained that the only definitive guidance his athletic department has from Governor Andrew Cuomo is that coaches aren’t allowed to give their athletes workout plans or “conduct meetings virtually or otherwise that involve athletes getting together in any group settings.” Right now, Scott said the department can’t even have a pre-season program that includes more than one workout for its athletes.

Turning the BOE’s attention to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA), Scott reported the association has a COVID-19 task force in place that had already met twice and had another meeting scheduled for the near future. To that end, he said NYSPHSAA has come up with six separate scenarios based on how the state’s schools will operate once they reopen. The Pine Plains district recently informed the governor it plans to open remotely this fall. 

Keeping COVID-19 protocols and student safety in mind, Scott said all sports have been individually categorized in terms of risk assessment. High-risk sports include football, wrestling, lacrosse and competitive cheerleading while moderate-risk sports include basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, soccer, field hockey, track (indoor and outdoor) and relay races; low-risk sports include individual track and throwing events, golf, sideline cheer and cross-country.

Guiding the BOE through the six scenarios set forth by NYSPHSAA, Scott said the first scenario involves all schools being open for in-person instruction and all sports being played.

“I would love if that was the answer to the equation, but it doesn’t sound like it will be,” Scott said before knowing the district’s decision to go remote. The second scenario involves all schools being open with hybrid schedules and all sports being played. With the third scenario, there would be a seasonal adjustment in that all of the sports that are currently being played would be played at different seasons. For example, all of the spring sports would be played in the fall; all of the fall sports would be played in the spring; and all of the winter sports would continue being played during the winter season. In this scenario, the sports seasons could also be split into five separate eight-week seasons — including Fall 1, Fall 2, Winter, Spring 1 and Spring 2 — to cover the 40 to 42 weeks of the overall athletic season.

Under the fourth scenario, schools would be open with hybrid education and there would be no athletic participation at the start of the school year; instead, the athletic program would start on Jan. 1, 2021. For the fifth season, there would be specific sports seasons divided into three 10-week seasons. Winter sports would run from Jan. 4 to March 13, 2021, while fall sports would run from March 1 to May 8 and spring sports would run from April 5 to June 12.

Taking regional differences in schools reopening and confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations into account, Scott said that, under the sixth scenario, sports seasons would be amended on a sectional or regional basis with a focus on engaging students with participation opportunities. 

Pine Plains honored as Scholar-Athlete School of Distinction

On Tuesday, July 21, NYSPHSAA announced that Stissing Mountain Junior High was one of four districts in Section IX to receive the honor of being named a 2019-20 Scholar-Athlete School of Distinction. 

According to an announcement from the school district, the purpose of the awards is to “unite varsity coaches in challenging their teams to achieve a statewide academic honor.” 

A total of 56 schools received the School of Distinction Award during the 2019-20 school year, four of which were from Section IX.

Scott explained on a later date that the honor was given because all of the athletes on the fall varsity sports teams (including football, boys soccer, girls soccer, volleyball and field hockey) and all of the athletes on the winter sports teams (including winter track, boys basketball and girls basketball) at Stissing Mountain Junior/Senior High School earned grade point averages of 90 points or higher for the season. The BOE praised the athlete-scholars.