‘We have no intention of cancelling fall sports’ - LHSAA exec. dir. writes letter to parents, athletes; offers timeline for start

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - LHSAA executive director Eddie Bonine posted a letter on Wednesday, July 22, intended to let parents and athletes know the association is committed to fall sports.

“The LHSAA is committed to conducting fall sports to the direct benefit of your student athletes however, we will not put schools in conflict or in harm’s way,” Bonine wrote. “We have no intention of cancelling fall sports unless schools are closed or the pandemic dictates that it is not safe to play.”

Bonine also had advice for people to help make fall sports happen.

“Gathering in large groups, not wearing masks, not staying home when symptoms are present, and not taking the appropriate steps to quarantine when symptoms are present will only delay and possibly drastically effect fall sports,” Bonine added.

Click here to read the full letter.

Bonine stated the letter was in response to emails from the public asking that fall sports not be canceled.

In a normal summer, every high school knows the timeline for fall sports and week one kickoff for football. And, although everything is staying on script as of right now in Louisiana, it could all change quickly. Even Bonine admitted Thursday, July 23, that it remains a very fluid situation in which time is closing in on them.

“We’re reaching those dates where ‘Eddie, we need a date on when y’all are going to make a decision on whether we’re going to have fall sports and what’s the date going to be,‘” Bonine said he has been hearing. “‘If we’re going to have fall sports, what’s the date or dates going to look like if we establish a modification of the schedule and what’s this going to entail?’ Those are all things that I think will happen, right, probably around that August 10th range, which is when summer rules end and we move back into LHSAA governance, if you will, outside of the summer rule piece, so probably somewhere in there.”

The state of California announced Monday the delay of fall sports until the spring of 2021. Then, Tuesday, the UIL in Texas announced a two-week delay to the football season for 5A and 6A schools.

Click here to report a typo.

Copyright 2020 WAFB. All rights reserved.