Mooresville High School suspends summer football, athletic workouts
Mooresville High School announced Monday that was suspending its summer workouts and band activites until further notice.
Michael Royal, chief operations officer for the Mooresville Graded School District, told the Observer the decision did not have to do with a student-athlete or group of them.
“This decision,” Royal said in an email, “was...simply a preventative measure. Each time an individual exhibits symptoms, there is a turnaround time of at least 3 days to receive test results leaving us in limbo. Therefore, we have decided the risks outweigh the benefits at this time.”
Mooresville and Lake Norman High were among the first area schools to begin voluntary summer workouts. The N.C. High School Athletic Association allowed its more than 400 member schools to begin such workouts June 15 with no contact.
Lake Norman football coach Jonathan Oliphant, whose school also plays in Iredell County, said his school’s workouts have not been suspended.
Some of North Carolina’s larger school systems, including Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and Wake County Schools, however, have postponed workouts indefinitely due to COVID-19 numbers increasing in the area.
In The Observer’s coverage zone, schools in Burke, Caldwell County, Catawba, Iredell, Lincoln, Rowan, Union, Watauga have begun workouts.
Cabarrus and Gaston County are set to begin July 20. A.L. Brown High, which is not in a county district, has not announced a start date. Richmond County and Stanly County School also have not announced start dates.
Nationwide, state associations are struggling with how to start high school football.
▪ New Mexico will play football in the spring, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujuan Grisham announced in a news conference Thursday. The New York Public High School Athletic Association had a special task force release a series of proposals for the upcoming school year, including moving football to spring or not playing at all.
▪ A proposal in the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools suggests a switch — moving spring sports, like baseball, to the fall, and moving fall sports, like football, to spring.
The spring sports, mostly, are non-contact like baseball, softball and track and field. Fall sports like soccer and football, are contact sports
▪ Utah’s High School Activities Association’s board of trustees voted unanimously to begin the fall season as previously scheduled last week.
▪ MaxPreps has reported that at least five states have moved back the start of the season: Arizona (will lose 1-3 regular-season games); New Jersey (Oct. 1); Tennessee (the first night of games was Aug. 21; now the first contact practices can start no earlier than Aug. 30); Washington (start of the season is Sept. 5); West Virginia (first practice Sept. 3)
In North Carolina, state officials are waiting to get Governor Roy Cooper’s plans for reopening schools before making any athletic decisions. Cooper is expected to announce those plans, perhaps as early as this week.
This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 11:25 AM.
