Once area high schools got the green light from New York State officials to have a condensed season for high-risk winter sports, the hard work began. And one of the biggest questions for schools who chose to go ahead was how long the season would last.
Originally, Section III had set an end date of Feb. 28 for winter sports, allowing for “fall sports II”, which includes football and volleyball, to begin March 1.
However, with the state designating Feb. 1 as the start point for boys and girls basketball, ice hockey, wrestling and competitive cheerleading and mandatory practices required before any competitions (10 for wrestling, six for other winter sports), that would mean a season only lasting a few weeks.
Accordingly, schools in the Salt City Athletic Conference approved this week a modified schedule which allowed winter sports to go two weeks further, to March 13.
Now fall sports II will begin March 8 for these schools and run through April 24, with spring sports taking place April 19 to June 24.
Members of the SCAC include Baldwinsville, Cicero-North Syracuse, Corcoran, Fayetteville-Manlius, Henninger, Liverpool, Nottingham and West Genesee in the Metro division, while Auburn, Central Square, Cortland, East Syracuse Minoa, Fulton, Jamesville-DeWitt, Oswego and PSLA-Fowler are in the Empire division.
The New York State Public High School Athletic Association has allowed the state’s 11 sections to set their own schedules for winter, fall sports II and spring, and there are differences in their set-ups.
The SCAC approach mirrors that of Section II, which includes Albany and the rest of the capital district, who are also pushing winter sports through March 13 while essentially maintaining its previous schedule for the other two seasons.
By contrast, Section VI in Western New York, which includes Buffalo and its suburbs, is extending winter sports through March 27, running fall sports II from March 22 to May 15 and spring sports from May 10 to June 30.
With the calendar change made, SCAC officials announced on Wednesday that spectators will not be allowed at basketball, ice hockey and wrestling events, based on recommendations from officials in each of the counties where the schools compete.
During the fall, schools that staged soccer, field hockey and other sports allowed two spectators per athlete at games, and while Onondaga County executive Ryan McMahon said those guidelines would continue, he still left it to individual leagues to make their own decisions.
On Thursday, the county released its updated health guidelines. Along with other regulations, they said that any team which had a player or coach test positive for COVID-19 would halt activities for 10 days.
Another decision was made on Friday by SCAC schools to move wrestling to the spring season in May and June, potentially forcing wrestlers to choose between that sport and others in the spring such as baseball, track and field and lacrosse.
