No decision yet: Idaho high school sports on hold for another week.
The fate of Idaho’s high school sports season will have to wait another week as the state governing body delayed a decision on possibly ending the season Tuesday.
Due to the spread of the coronavirus, all sports remain postponed until April 20. The Idaho High School Activities Association planned to revisit that postponement at its scheduled board meeting Wednesday. But new guidelines from the Idaho State Board of Education convinced the IHSAA to wait, said Ty Jones, the executive director of the IHSAA.
The Idaho State Board of Education issued a confusing order Monday, ordering all school buildings closed for the rest of the academic year — unless schools can meet certain criteria to reopen.
The State Board did not define what criteria would allow schools to reopen, other than the lifting of local social distancing orders. The State Board said it wants to maintain local control and plans to define that criteria at its next meeting Monday.
“If they’re going to come back in a week, it’s not going to hurt us to wait another week,” Jones told the Idaho Statesman on Tuesday.
The IHSAA followed the State Board a week ago in postponing all games and practices until April 20, the end of the previously issued state-mandated school closure. Jones said the IHSAA will continue to take its lead from the State Board.
“To me, if schools are not open, that answers questions for us, which is why we want to see what the parameters might be,” Jones said.
Even if sports resumed April 20, it would leave teams with little time to complete an abbreviated season. The 5A and 4A Southern Idaho Conferences planned to start their district baseball and softball tournaments May 2, just 12 days after the first allowable practices.
The IHSAA has softened on possibly delaying its state tournaments past May 11-16, saying it is an option. But the logistical challenges of finding enough venues to host 34 state tournaments — including golf, tennis, track, baseball and softball — on short notice could prove impossible to overcome.
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 4:21 PM.
