SOUTH CAROLINA, USA — The South Carolina High School League (SCHSL) has approved for fall sports to take place this year but with a revised schedule.
The leagues voted 14-2 to approve the measure. Practice for fall sports will now be allowed to start on August 17th instead of the originally scheduled date, July 30th.
If the schedule doesn't change, the first games would be allowed to start on September 11th.
With football, the league wants teams to schedule seven games. The top priority would to play region games and then teams would be allowed to schedule some non-region games if time allows.
The playoff schedule would also be reduced. Instead of the normal five rounds, there would only be four.
State championships for football would then be in late November.
The SCHSL says the schedule in place now is subject to change because of the coronavirus situation.
While the league is planning to have fall sports in it's normal season, Jerome Singleton, the commissioner, says their schedule would allow them to make changes possible like fall sports being moved to the winter or spring.
"It is flexible enough. Now again, it does create some challenges because it could be on top of another sport's season. So you've got a kid that's a multi-sport athlete that may have to make a decision between sports," explained Singleton. "We can decide when it starts invading another sport's season, do we adjust those other sports' season so we can keep it separated. That's an option."
One of the questions people have wondered whether or not fans would be allowed to watch fall sports play.
Due to the pandemic, Governor Henry McMaster has said allowing fans in the stadium would be a violation of his emergency order which restricts spectator sports.
Once the Governor makes a change to that rule, the league plans on allowing individual districts to make the decision on how they would want to handle having fans in the stands.
Most districts are offering students the option of either in-person or online classes for the 2020-2021 school year. Some people have questioned if student-athletes who choose to learn at home would be considered ineligible to play.
Singleton says according to their constitution this would not impact a student athletes eligibility to play in their sport.
"If you are a member student of the school, then you're eligible to play. That's the only standard that has. You've got to be a student of the school that you represent. Didn't say you have to be present," said Singleton.
The league is still having to discussions on how teams will have to handle things if a player tests positive for COVID-19. The SCHSL doesn't have a position on whether coronavirus tests being mandatory. The commissioner says school districts around the state have been making their own decision on the matter.