I was driving in to school on Wednesday when I heard something I never thought I would ever hear: the University of Connecticut just canceled their entire football season.
They are the first Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) team to cancel their season because of the coronavirus pandemic. Not to overstate the obvious, but we are living in strange times! Cancel college football? Wow . . .
At BJA we have taken the past four months to plan a safe opening for our school. As you know, the factors to consider are almost endless and ever changing.
One of the most difficult aspects of our decision-making has been in the area of interscholastic sports.
From the pro leagues all the way down to the youth leagues, there has been a wide variety of plans to safely begin and maintain sports seasons. Pro leagues have had mixed results; some colleges plan to begin conditioning, though not actual practices, soon. Public high schools across South Carolina postponed summer workouts back in June after one week of workouts and hope to resume limited conditioning on August 10. Currently, Greenville County Schools have classified their readiness as a 1.5 on a scale of 1 to 3. Phase 3 is the only phase that includes school-to-school competition.
What about BJA?
We have made extensive preparations for a normal sports season. Between January and July we scheduled over 300 games/meets for our middle and high school interscholastic programs. All this planning was in anticipation of a normal school opening and a normal sports season.
However, we have determined that we need to postpone tryouts, which normally begin on the first day of teacher in-service (August 10). As a result our games scheduled for the month of August have been postponed—about 22 of the 300-plus middle and high school games/meets.
As the situation continues to develop, our goal is to give you regular updates regarding the start of our sports seasons.
We want to see our teams competing on all levels. We will continue to gather information and regularly assess the many variables. Interscholastic sports is a very large variable in the pandemic situation and must be considered in light of the entire school safety plan. Right now it is best for BJA to continue to monitor the spread, assess the risks, and protect the school community. We covet your prayers!
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