By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–There’s finally a plan in place for the 2020 high school football season.
When that plan goes into full motion, though, is still anybody’s guess.
The TSSAA Board of Control Wednesday passed a hybrid version of an earlier submitted contingency plan that will go into effect only if Gov. Bill Lee modifies his State of Emergency Order or when that order expires on Aug. 29.
That order was extended in late June in the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic and prohibits prep programs across the state from doing anything other than weightlifting and conditioning.
The adopted plan has a sliding scale of when the season can begin based on Lee’s order.
Because the TSSAA requires teams to practice in pads for three weeks before playing in their first game, should the governor exempt the high school governing body from his order before the expiration date, teams could begin padded practice as scheduled as early as Aug. 3. In that instance, the regular season would begin as originally scheduled on Aug. 21 with a full five-week postseason schedule to follow.
If the order remains in place, however, teams could not begin practice in pads until Aug. 30, meaning the first games would be played on Sept. 18. Schedules would be picked up in their current order, beginning with Week 5 and continuing through the end of the season. They would then pick back up early season region games that were not played to round out the campaign.
The top two regional finishers would make the playoffs in a postseason that has four rounds, rather than five, and teams would eventually play an eight-game season in that scenario.
The “sliding scale” would come into play if and/or when Lee rescinds his order before its originally scheduled Aug. 29 cutoff date. Other possibilities for the season to begin in that occurrence would be Aug. 25, Sept. 4 or Sept 11, and starting with the opponents originally scheduled for those dates.
If practice has not begun by Aug. 17, however, then the playoff field will be cut to 16 teams in each classification with only the region champion and runner-up qualifying.
The plan drew mixed reviews from Union City head coach Nick Markle and UCHS Athletics Director Shane Sisco.
“I understand they (TSSAA) are in a tight spot and that it’s an ever-changing landscape,” said Markle, who’ll make his Tornado head coaching debut when the season does begin. “At the same time, we, as coaches, are still just looking for some direction and hope. In some way, I feel that the TSSAA has just kicked the can down the road, meaning the governor will ultimately decide.
“We’re all in a tight spot. I know, as a coach, it’s getting tougher and tougher to keep kids motivated because we have no firm answers for them as far as when we can begin practice and when we’ll play.”
Sisco acknowledged both the positive and negative aspects of the decision.
“The good news is at this time it looks like we are going to be able to have athletic contests with some game restrictions,” he said. “I think that is extremely important to our student athletes.
“It is still disappointing that the TSSAA seems to defer on making a decision. Instead of giving us a start date we are in a holding pattern to see if the governor will lift his stay.”
TSSAA Executive Director Bernard Childress summed up the meeting with these sentiments:
“We’re hopeful that the prohibition on contact sports will be lifted before Aug. 29, but if it’s not, the Board of Control has put some policies in place to help keep our kids and communities safe and lay out a roadmap to the start of our football and girls’ soccer seasons.”
The TSSAA also adopted unanimously its COVID-19 guidelines and procedures required of all member institutions who wish to compete in all athletics in the 2020-21 calendar school year.