High school football season in Manatee County delayed due to COVID-19
Manatee County’s high school football season won’t start on time due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The county made the announcement Tuesday, a day after the Florida High School Athletic Association’s Board of Directors voted to keep the fall sports calendar intact, but give school districts the option of starting at a later date.
Football was supposed to begin with practices on Monday, July 27, but the Manatee County School District said it will start on a date to be determined later.
“We want to give kids an opportunity to play, period,” said Manatee County Athletic Director Jason Montgomery. “And two, the important part about slowing down right now and pushing things back a little bit is we want to get this right. The last thing we want to do is to start and then have to shut down again.”
Montgomery said a conference call involving nine school districts stretching from the Tampa Bay area to the Orlando area was happening Tuesday night to figure out where everyone is at.
“Kind of look at people in the same area and try to stay as long as we can on the same type of schedule,” Montgomery said. “So playing games and people not freaking out about somebody having a practice advantage and all that kind of stuff.”
Montgomery said hopefully there will be a semblance of a game plan moving into next week.
Monday’s FHSAA video conference meeting lasted about 4 1/2 hours and saw the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, as well as the FHSAA’s Fall Sports Task Force, offer recommendations.
SMAC, which is a 10-person committee comprised of medical professionals, recommended delaying fall sports indefinitely.
FHSAA ultimately left along the start dates for fall officials, while giving local officials the ability to determine when they should start.
The school district’s decision to delay fall sports came the same day the Florida Department of Health reported 133 new positive coronavirus cases and five deaths in Manatee County.
While Florida is keeping its sports calendar intact for the fall, other hot spot states battling COVID-19 — California and Georgia — announced delays to the start of their high school sports seasons.
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 3:47 PM.
