When can Tennessee high school sports teams start practicing again? – Tennessean
With Gov. Bill Lee now re-opening the state in phases, the TSSAA is leaving it up to districts and schools to determine when athletes can resume practicing.
But there are plenty of questions across the state. The biggest are “who” and “when.”
Schools are responsible for using their best judgments, along with following state and local government guidelines as they relate to COVID-19.
“It is totally the decision of local boards of education, directors of schools, and/or heads of school as to how much they are going to allow coaches to do face-to-face activities with their students,” TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress said.
Every county has been affected differently, which would make a unified restart date almost impossible.
To get as many school districts as possible on the same page, Williamson County Athletic Director Darrin Joines held a conference call Tuesday with county ADs from across the state.
Joines said the ADs targeted June 1 “as a best-case scenario” for most to start getting athletes back on the field. Campuses are closed until the end of the original school year, which is late May for most.
Joines also cautioned that the smartest move would be easing things back into place.
“We all realized there are steps to getting everybody back out,” Joines said. “You can’t have it where one day there’s nothing going on, then the next day everybody’s practicing. Everybody gets that.
“No. 1, obviously the safety of the kids is our top priority. No. 2, we want to get out there as quick as we can while being safe. Hopefully there’s a marriage of it’s safe and it’s soon. But we also know it’s a fluid situation that’s ever-changing.”
Schools have been advised by the TSSAA that summer begins when the school was originally scheduled to be dismissed.
For football, summer on the TSSAA calendar means practice in helmets, T-shirts and shorts is permitted, but pads aren’t allowed until fall practice begins the last week in July.
“What makes it tricky for everybody is, at what point can you be up close and personal?” Joines said. “Let’s face it, when it comes to athletics, it’s all about no social distancing.”
Will it be a level playing field?
Lee did not plan to extend the statewide safer-at-home order past Thursday, but larger metropolitan areas are planning their own reopen strategies.
Could that give an advantage to a program in an area deemed safer to get back to athletics than a team in a metropolitan area?
“It would put you behind the 8-ball, but you have to respect the rules and realize that safety comes first,” said Pearl-Cohn football coach Tony Brunetti. His squad is in Davidson County, which as of Wednesday led the state in COVID-19 cases (2,612 to Shelby County’s 2,432).
“I don’t see any kind of work for us until at least the middle of June. If we start any later than that, we’ll be behind the gun (compared to other teams). But it will be the same for Memphis and other big cities.”
For the most part, metropolitan teams are in regions together, putting them in the same situation. But Pearl-Cohn’s Region 5-3A also includes a more rural Giles County, which could get started earlier.
“That’s just the dice roll,” Brunetti said. “They don’t have the cases we have. But it is what it is. You have to respect the situation.”
Rossview athletic director Rick Martin isn’t thrilled with the possibility of his Class 6A football team — whose Region 4 opponents include teams from Wilson and Sumner counties — having to wait if other counties are given the green light.
“I’m not saying the TSSAA doesn’t do a great job,” Martin said. “They do an excellent job, but leaving it up to local school systems could allow some teams to gain the advantage and get ahead.”
Added Rutherford County Schools Director Bill Spurlock: “It might create some opportunities for some that might not be equitable. But, unfortunately, that’s where we are.”
The decision for Rutherford County schools will be in the hands of Spurlock.
“”Our schools officially end on May 27, so we’re looking at early June,” Spurlock said. “Even if that’s in the cards, we will be providing more guidelines on what that will look like. We’ll be working with local health departments.”
St. George’s athletic director Tom Densford’s program is in Memphis but as a private school is not regulated by a school district.
“We haven’t started phase one (of reopening) so I think we’ll know more next week,” Densford said.
Smaller counties that haven’t been hit as hard by COVID-19 have also approached this issue cautiously. Stewart County athletic director Ben Duncan said the earliest he is looking at would be June.
Houston County athletic director Ray Busey hasn’t even broached the subject with his coaches or the school system in Erin.
Another question is about how many athletes are allowed to assemble at a time.
“(If) it says you can coach 10 kids at a time, and we have a two-hour practice, I’ll be at school for 20 hours,” said Gibson County football coach Scott Stidham. “If that’s what we have to do, then that’s what we’re going to do.”
• The TSSAA Board of Control canceled its three-day meeting originally planned for June and will meet again in August. Items that were to be discussed in June will be taken into consideration in the August meeting.
One of the items was classification. Board members will be sent plans for classification, with the goal of holding the study session in late July.
What to know about athletes returning to practice
• If the CDC or local health departments recommend groups of 10 or fewer, the TSSAA will allow multiple practices with smaller groups from a team to be considered one practice.
• Pre-participation physicals that were dated after April 15, 2019, are good throughout this summer until the first official practice day for fall sports.
• Video conference calls between coaches and players still must follow the TSSAA sports calendar guidelines for practices if the call involves sport-specific instruction.
• It is not a recruiting violation to post information about summer workouts and practice schedules for incoming freshmen if the information is distributed openly and not being sent to a specific student or group of students.
USA Today Network’s Michael Odom and Khari Thompson contributed to this report.
Published 1:09 PM EDT Apr 30, 2020
