The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) has announced that most high school sports will take place this fall with certain restrictions.

According to The Boston Globe, the MIAA's Board of Directors voted to unanimously approve a recommendation from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the MIAA’s COVID-19 Task Force, under the guidelines of the state's Office of Environmental and Energy Affairs (EEA). Those recommendations will allow for moderate risk sports to play during the fall season and higher risk sports, such as football, to play during a “floating season” to take place in the spring.

The high school fall sports season is scheduled to start September 18 and will include golf, cross country, field hockey, soccer, gymnastics, and volleyball. Other high risk sports, including football and cheerleading, will take placed during a newly developed "floating season" (aka Fall Sports II) scheduled to start at the end of winter into early spring.

Every fall sport except for golf and cross country was listed as at least a moderate risk.

Proposed winter sports would include gymnastics, indoor track, skiing, dance, winter swimming/diving, cheer, hockey, basketball, and wrestling. The spring season would include girls’ golf, baseball, softball, tennis, boys’ volleyball, lacrosse, track and field, and rugby.

Higher risk sports that traditionally take place in the winter and spring seasons, including basketball, hockey, wrestling, boys’ lacrosse, and rugby, will continue to be evaluated in light of health metrics and continued guidance from the EEA.
The following tentative schedule has been approved. All athletics regardless of the risk or the season will still have to adhere to guidelines be the EEA.
  • Sept. 18 - Nov. 20 — Fall Sports
  • Nov. 30 - Feb. 21 — Winter Sports
  • Feb. 22 - April 25 — Fall Sports II (”Floating season”)
  • April 26 - July 3 — Spring season

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education states:

The MIAA will develop a timeline for looking at data prior to the start of each season to determine which color-coded designation a district should fall into for the purposes of engaging in sports. Districts designated as yellow, green, or unshaded based on DPH metrics — and have their students learning remotely — may delay their fall season to the floating season. Any school district in those three categories doing remote-only learning may still participate in the fall season, pending approval of its local school committee.

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