High School sports given clearance ‘to move forward;’ DeWine urges caution

Those contact sports join golf, girls tennis, cross country and volleyball as fall sports that already had been cleared for competition in Ohio.

All sports were cleared for practice by late June, but contact sports had been in a holding pattern as far as games even though practices began Aug. 1.

Basketball, rugby, lacrosse, ice hockey, wrestling, futsal and martial arts with opponents had also been banned from inter-team competition -- except under tight restrictions -- in an order issued by the Ohio Department of Health during the summer and updated Aug. 1, but DeWine said all sports will be cleared by the new order.

“The caveat always is that like anything else in life, it depends on how it is executed,” DeWine said of an order that is set to be released this week and will go into effect Friday, the first day soccer and field hockey games can be played.

While golf and tennis have already begun playing, football and cross country can begin competitions Aug. 24. Soccer and volleyball begin this weekend.

“We will be releasing this order, and really it is about how we can provide best advice to how sports in Ohio are conducted,” DeWine said. “This includes not only situations that are under the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s umbrella, but any kind of sports organized by basically anybody in the state.”

DeWine said the decision was not easy but came down to allowing local districts and parents make decisions based on their situations.

While the number of COVID-19 cases and positivity rate has been trending down overall in Ohio, he noted both are up in multiple counties recently, including Mercer, Champaign, Preble and Darke Counties.

Montgomery County is the only local county as high as level three in the Ohio Public Health Advisory System, and Public Health - Dayton and the county has recommended against in-person classes and extracurricular activities. Trotwood-Madison and Dayton Public Schools have suspended athletics to start the year.

“Our order will provide that all sports may go forward this fall, with contact and the non-contact sports,” DeWine said. “We lay out exactly the roadmap of how this should take place and what has to be done to make it as safe as possible.”

Districts that wish to move fall sports seasons to the spring will be allowed to do so per both the governor and the OHSAA.

“As we go through this, frankly, we know some schools are still deciding,” DeWine said. “Some schools have already made up their mind, they’ve already announced. Our goal is to focus on the student, and to focus on the school and provide them the best opportunity they can so that young person can participate.

“No one can guess what the future is going to be. We don’t know frankly what the situation is going to be or how far into the season we’ll be able to get… nor can we predict if things will be better when it would become time to play these sports in the spring, but this order, simply allows for us to move forward.”

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said the administration hopes allowing sports will provide extra incentive for players, coaches and members of the community to adhere to social distancing and other guidelines designed to limit the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

“If you’re talking about 16-year-old, 17-year-old high school athletes, they’re in a position that they’re going to go out and compete,” said Husted, who played football at the University of Dayton. “I know from my life experiences and talking to coaches are they better with the incentive to play, and to keep themselves protected 24 hours a day, under a coach’s supervision and in these rules than they would be to be left to their own devices and go out and play pick-up games, do unorganized things that they do, and I just think there’s more of an incentive for them to do this right, and to get the education and coaching that they need to sustain this under a more structured situation.”

Although most details of the order were not released Tuesday, DeWine said crowds will be limited to families and people close to the athletics and members of the band and spirit squads.

“We’ll leave that of course up to the school how to do that,” DeWine said.

The OHSAA announced schools will be limited in how many players can dress in various sports, including a limit of 60 in football, 22 in soccer and field hockey and 15 in volleyball.

Additionally, bands will be limited to home contests.

“The OHSAA is moving forward because we want kids to have an opportunity to participate, and the Governor’s Office is providing that opportunity and a chance,” OHSAA Interim Executive Director Bob Goldring said in a release. “So for that we are most appreciative. It’s important to remember that our student-athletes have been practicing and training with others for weeks and even months, and it has gone well. So, we believe they deserve the chance to move forward, and that the high school space is also different than the collegiate space.”