Could NC high school athletes return to the field next month? That ball is rolling
On Tuesday, the N.C. High School Athletic Association sent an email to more than 400 member schools that says its ban on sports-related activities would end June 1. But that doesn’t mean teams will definitely be returning for offseason workouts.
“If the governor does not lift his mandate relative to what we can do starting June 1, then nothing happens,” said Que Tucker, commissioner of the N.C. High School Athletic Association.
Tucker told the Observer that the governor’s orders and state and local guidelines will “supersede anything we can ever do in the summertime.”
Tucker said the NCHSAA wanted to have a consistent date for a possible return to sports-related activities for all of its schools. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have been observing a “dead period” since March during which there could be no sports-related activities for student-athletes.
A possible June 1 return would include things such as on-campus weightlifting for fall sports, basketball workouts and team camps along with football drills and skills.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools was scheduled to begin summer workouts in the second week of June.
CMS notified its community partners — including youth organizations that rent its gyms and fields — that it will announce a decision next week if those facilities will be available for use for summer.
A lot of what happens, school officials say, depends on guidance from the state.
Currently, Gov. Roy Cooper has allowed North Carolina to move into Phase 1 of a reopening plan. That began May 8 and allows for such things as 50% capacity in retail stores and for child-care centers to open. It also calls for a 10-person limit on gatherings.
Phase 2, which could begin later this month, would increase the number of people allowed at gatherings and potentially open the door for student-athletes to return to campus.
Hough High athletics director Masanori Toguchi said it’s tough to guess what might happen.
“I have no clue,” he said. “This is going to be a new normal with new guidelines coming out for health and safety and sanitation and all that. For me, I’d be waiting on guidance to see what summer will look like and how we handle body-to-body contact and how we handle social distancing and all that.”
Toguchi said that many student-athletes at Hough are ready to get back to their sport. Students throughout the area, at many schools, are posting videos on social media showing them training by weightlifting at home or practicing on fields.
“I think the kids are ready to turn back to a normal,” Toguchi said. “But I don’t know what that normal is. It’s going to be new for everybody. We’re going to have to be cautious in what we do.”
NCAA cancels College Basketball Academy
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA has canceled both sessions of its College Basketball Academy July 20-26. Winthrop University was one of the regional sites for the developmental boys basketball event for the classes of 2021-23.
More than 1,600 prospective college prospects were expected to participate in front of college coaches.
▪ The National Association of Basketball Coaches and the women’s Basketball Coaches Association executive committee have also recommend that the NCAA extend its recruiting dead period through July 31. It currently is set to expire May 31.
During a dead period, college coaches cannot have face-to-face contact with recruits or their parents, including hosting them on campus visits. Coaches can still write, telephone and have video conferences.
This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 4:38 PM.
