The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference approved a schedule for the winter high school sports season on Thursday, with a tentative start date for competition set for Dec. 7.
CIAC executive director Glenn Lungarini told The Courant that the decision is for scheduling purposes only, and that it doesn’t mean the board has approved any specific sport to play this winter. The CIAC is in the process of developing COVID-19 mitigation strategies with each individual sport committee, which will then be reviewed by its sports medicine committee.
All winter sports can begin practice on Nov. 21, with contests beginning on Dec. 7. Boys and girls basketball and ice hockey will be allowed to play a maximum of 16 regular-season games, no more than two per week. Boys swimming and wrestling will be allowed to hold 14 regular-season meets, also two per week, and indoor track and gymnastics can hold 12 meets.
Acting state Department of Public Health commissioner Deidre Gifford said Thursday that the department will be working with the CIAC to discuss the safety of individual sports.
“I think we’ve been pretty clear in previous situations that high risk sports ought to wait,” Gifford said. “We’ll continue to talk to them about the schedule, about the particular sports, and importantly, about any mitigation strategies that have been developed or have been successful elsewhere. But given where we are, with our spike in numbers, what the governor alluded to, what we’re seeing around sports – both locally and around the country – we’ll want to take a cautious approach to sports as we did in the fall.”
The state tournament is slated to run from Feb. 8 to Feb 21, with wrestling, track, basketball and hockey starting on Feb. 8 and all other sports on Feb. 9. Basketball and hockey will need to play a minimum of eight regular-season games to qualify for the postseason, while wrestling (seven), gymnastics (six), boys swimming (four) and indoor track (one) will be required to play fewer events to qualify.
“I’m thrilled,” E.O. Smith girls basketball coach Mary Roickle said. “That was my first emotion. Yes. We’ve got dates. I understand we have to go through each sports committee to understand what, if any, changes will look like. We will be organized and ready to go and we must be fluid. That’s the bottom line of the year 2020. Knock on wood, hope and pray we are able to continue in the state of Connecticut what’s been going on to date.”
Home or away games against out-of-state competition is prohibited. All sports are advised to hold contests within their respective leagues, and leagues are advised to create geographic-based divisions which teams are recommended to play in.
If a boys swimming or gymnastics teams wants to play a team in a different league, it must do so virtually. If ice hockey or wrestling teams need to schedule games outside of their respective leagues, distance between schools should be the “number one priority,” the CIAC said.
Teams may hold a maximum of two scrimmages prior to the Dec. 7 start date. Multi-team events will not be permitted for the winter season.
“It shows [the CIAC’s] commitment to trying to make something work for the student athletes,” said Old Saybrook boys basketball coach Chris Perras. “From a coaching standpoint, you’ve got to be prepared. I’m preparing that we will have a season, and I’m looking forward to that. But you can never get too high on that, you’ve got to be real.
“I’m hopeful that we will, and that it stays as is, we have got to prepare for the worst. I’m trying to be very real, and have no expectations. But for myself, I have to be in the best position to prepare my team if we do have a season.”
Last week, Lungarini said the CIAC was talking to operators of venues, including the Mohegan Sun Arena, where the basketball championships are played, to see what may or may not be available.
“Right now, we know Yale is not available to us, Wesleyan, none of the colleges,” he said. “There are still a lot of limitations. Hockey venues are difficult to come by. Indoor track venues are almost impossible right now. We’re talking with Mohegan as well to see what they’re doing. Most of the events they are running in the arena right now are being run without fans. We’re really trying to gather as much information as we can for each of the sports, each of the venues.”
Lungarini said the CIAC is hoping to be able to have some kind of state tournament in the winter for the sports which will be played. There is no state tournament for fall sports, only regional championships.
“We’re trying to think of some options for that — Do you set up a basketball or a hockey tournament that would be a similar format to an NCAA Tournament?” he said. “Rather than having teams 1-32, do you create regions and have 1-8 in each region and get regional champs and then play out the super-regionals or Sweet 16 — that way, as you start traveling away from leagues and regions, you minimize the number of schools that increase their travel.”
Lori Riley contributed to this story. Shawn McFarland can be reached at smcfarland@courant.com. Lori Riley can be reached at lriley@courant.com.
