OHSAA Update April 8

[Trevorstephens22]

To: All OHSAA Member Schools’ Superintendents, Principals, and Athletic Administrators
From: Jerry Snodgrass, Executive Director

Good afternoon to each of you. This communication is intended to keep you in the loop with the continually changing events affecting school activities. Please note this communication has been shared with our District Athletic Boards and our schools well in advance of it being shared with the media. It is my intent to make sure our members receive all important information directly instead of reading it on social media or in a newspaper. The media WILL receive a version of this but not until much later.

Pupil Activity Coaching Permits
We will continue to monitor the status of spring seasons as well as summer facility availability as it relates to expiration of any Pupil Activity Coaching Permits and provide guidance if closures occur through the summer months.

Annual Award Certificates (Archie Griffin, Courageous Student Awards, NFHS Award)
Last year, we made these available online to permit easier access and the ability to tailor them to your recipients by printing names on them, etc. These annual certificates are now available on each school's myOHSAA account. The links to the award certificates can be found in the left navigation near the bottom under OHSAA Awards. Please do not hesitate to contact membershipservices@ohsaa.org if you need any assistance.

District Athletic Board Elections
After much discussion and since elections for District Athletic Board members are all electronic (as well as petitions that are required to be submitted), we will go forward with the normal process. While nominating petitions are scheduled to be available beginning next week, detailed information will be provided to you prior to that time.

More Guidance for Fall Scholarship Eligibility/NCAA Eligibility
A reminder from previous guidance last week that the GPA requirement is not an OHSAA mandate (many are not aware of that).While law mandates you have one, it is not used for eligibility or ineligibility in our office (violating a school’s GPA requirement does not result in forfeiture of a contest).Therefore, if you are utilizing Pass/Fail options for your students, you need not worry how that affects fall 2020 eligibility.
The NFHS continues conversation with the NCAA relative to student-athlete fall semester eligibility.The NFHS expects decisions from the NCAA very soon relative to Div. I and Div. II to follow soon after as it relates to Pass/Fail grades and GPA requirements at the NCAA level.It has been asked that they have a link to easy access for news, updates and FAQ’s and the NCAA has assured this will occur.We will share that as soon as we are provided it. Since the NCAA and NFHS share the same office building in Indianapolis, the dialogue in communication continues efficiently. Much of their info can be found at:ncaa.org/COVID-19

Information Relative to Spring Sports & Beyond
First, we continue to stay in close contact with the state’s leadership relative to stay-at-home orders. Additionally, we continue to collaborate with the OASSA to make certain we have each other’s support as it relates to a return to school and activities.A few important updates/reminders:

If schools are closed for the remainder of the school year, spring sports will be cancelled in Ohio
The mandatory No-Contact period remains in place until at least May 1. No practices or group workouts may occur through this date.
No-contact does not mean ‘electronic’ communication is not permitted. In fact, we encourage coaches to maintain correspondence, provide workouts, etc. to INDIVIDUALS.
The dates below for a spring season/tournaments are tentative. We are continuing with the Governor’s optimistic direction that schools will re-open on May 4. We will adjust accordingly. However optimistic this may be, we must PLAN for the return even if that ends up changing.
With a current return on May 4, the following schedule has been adopted for spring sports. Specific information relative to Sectional and District Tournaments, playing dates, seeding procedures, game sites, will all be provided in communications from the respective six District Athletic Boards.
If for any reason specific sites are shut down due to governor’s orders, ALL sites will be shut down and a tournament will not be held.

Restructured 2020 Spring Sport Dates - as of April 8

BASEBALL
Non-Interscholastic Date
May 4

Acclimation Period
May 4-8

Season Begins
(Sat) May 9

Tournament Entry/Withdrawal
May 11

Tournament Entry/Withdraw w/penalty
May 12-15

Tournament Draw/Coaches Meeting
May 17

Sectional Tournaments*
May 23-30
* Sectional competition shall NOT begin earlier than the date provided.

District Tournaments
June 1-6

Regional Tournaments
June 11 & 12

State Tournament
June 19-21

Season Concludes
June 27

[BlizzardMan]

I say just skip sectionals and pick the top 4 to 8 teams from each region and let them play from there. Not every team needs to play on the postseason in such a shortened season.

[formerfcfan]

I say just skip sectionals and pick the top 4 to 8 teams from each region and let them play from there. Not every team needs to play on the postseason in such a shortened season.

Ahhhh man that’s kicking the hornets nest. I can see great objection to the OHSAA saying that, for instance, Newark Catholic is one of those top teams in the Region 15 (Lancaster) for D4 with an explanation that coaches of teams getting spurned from the selection would object to.

[25th Street NW]

I give kudos to the OHSAA and Jerry Snodgrass for not giving up on these kids. 10-15 games is better than none, but it all comes down to the people that control our lives right now.

[Burg4]

Interesting schedule. So season starts May 9 and the tournament draw is May 17. Going to be an interesting 8 days to see how teams will be seeded, I assume your schedule during that week will play a big factor. If you get some rain that week, it could be really interesting.

[Sballbball24/7]

Anything is better than nothing at all and I hope it happens for the kids especially those playing their final season but I’ll be surprised if they are released to go to school may 4th

[Prime Time]

How can you send kids back to school under these circumstances and take a very huge risk of infecting even more people. Who would say which teams would be in top 4 . Every school could have a argument here. It’s tournament time anyone can upset anyone. So that would be so unfair to every last girl playing softball on any team state wide.

[Prime Time]

Pence said just in last 24 hours , it will be many weeks and months before social distancing will be lifted.

[longball]

Restrictions will start being lifted when we see a decline in the number of cases for a certain amount of time and it will not be months. Again, we are not social distancing to make the virus go away. That’s impossible. The purpose of flattening the curve was to prevent the hospital surge and we are doing that while we are also about 87% UNDER the projected number of cases and deaths. People will still get this virus when restrictions are lifted. It’s foolish to think we are going to be locked down until this fizzles out and disappears. And kids aren’t high risk unless they have an underlying condition. Take standard precautions like hand washing and be responsible. If you’re in that high risk category, you should already know what you need to do to keep yourself safe. People need to get back to work and I don’t think it’s going to be months at all.

[petesweaty]

Florida governor said today that he is thinking about staring schools back up soon. He said the virus has little effect on K-12 age level. (which we knew a long time ago) They are suppose to be out until May 4 like Ohio.

......and don't give me that crap about they can carry it to their grandparents, etc. Kids are full of germs which probably why they are immune to this virus. They can carry anything to their grandparents. Flu or whatever.

[GalliaGrad78]

It has been rumored that seniors in spring sports will be redshirted and eligible to compete next spring as seniors at the high school level. How is this possible?

[formerfcfan]

It has been rumored that seniors in spring sports will be redshirted and eligible to compete next spring as seniors at the high school level. How is this possible?

Rumored by who?

It’s false.

[formerfcfan]

Florida governor said today that he is thinking about staring schools back up soon. He said the virus has little effect on K-12 age level. (which we knew a long time ago) They are suppose to be out until May 4 like Ohio.

......and don't give me that crap about they can carry it to their grandparents, etc. Kids are full of germs which probably why they are immune to this virus. They can carry anything to their grandparents. Flu or whatever.

Sounds like a pretty darn dumb idea since Florida now has 18.5k confirmed cases. Ohio has 6.1k

[GalliaGrad78]

It has been rumored that seniors in spring sports will be redshirted and eligible to compete next spring as seniors at the high school level. How is this possible?

Rumored by who?

It’s false.

Rumored by my neighbor, I didnt see how that could be possible. But then again, I have been suprised before.

[wobycat]

Florida governor said today that he is thinking about staring schools back up soon. He said the virus has little effect on K-12 age level. (which we knew a long time ago) They are suppose to be out until May 4 like Ohio.

......and don't give me that crap about they can carry it to their grandparents, etc. Kids are full of germs which probably why they are immune to this virus. They can carry anything to their grandparents. Flu or whatever.

School wont happen this year. I'm skeptical about next year. All it takes is for it to spread among students and one of those students dies, it will be all she wrote. I want sports to happen as much as the next guy but this could be far from it actually occurring.

[Prime Time]

Latest news is they’re saying now we will be wearing masks for the next year or longer. So I really say the fall football will be cancelled. Pros, college high school. If fans aren’t allowed in stadiums , how you justify letting the players be there you really can’t. Fall sports are included. Very sad day and outlook for humanity

[Poo Bear]

Latest news is they’re saying now we will be wearing masks for the next year or longer. So I really say the fall football will be cancelled. Pros, college high school. If fans aren’t allowed in stadiums , how you justify letting the players be there you really can’t. Fall sports are included. Very sad day and outlook for humanity

Are you Mike DeWine ?

[wobycat]

I’m usually optimistic but I believe his point.

https://www.nbc4i.com/community/health/ ... es-reopen/

[Prime Time]

Wobycat President Trump just said schools should remain closed.

[Prime Time]

I’m not Mike DeWine but I am a concerned and follow orders to protect me you my family and humanity