Players like Danville senior Camryn Preston, a Lindsey Wilson signee, will have to wait now until Jan. 4 for basketball games to start
Having the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Board of Control vote to delay the start date for high school basketball games to January 4 at its meeting Wednesday was not a shocker. Considering the rising COVID-19 numbers across the state before the upcoming holidays and number of school systems back to virtual learning already, this was a move many anticipated even if the high school football playoffs are starting Friday night across the state. But even then around 20 teams have opted out of the football playoffs already because of COVID concerns.
Basketball practice is now halted until December 14 — teams had been practicing for a season scheduled to start November 23. That will give teams three full weeks to practice before regular season play can start for seven weeks with a maximum of three games per week. My guess is that teams had an average of 10-15 games scheduled before the new Jan. 4 start date including a variety of traditional holiday tournaments.
One thing that did surprise me a little is that postseason play will start March 1 with district tournaments. Regional tournament play will begin March 8 with state tournaments now tentatively scheduled for May 17-21 and March 24-28.
“I really can’t in clear conscience tell you I think it’s a good idea for our member schools to start playing official games this coming Monday,” KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett said during the meeting. “I know there will be parents upset. That’s okay. I know there will be coaches upset. I know there will be kids upset.”
He’s right. But in fairness there would have been parents, coaches and players upset if the season had started next week because of safety concerns.
The Board of Control could still make changes based on what happens with the virus but as of today spring sports would begin the week of April 5.
Tackett made it clear preserving a full spring sports season was a priority since there was no 2020 spring sports season due to COVID-19.
“We stuck to the fact that we were going to preserve the spring. We don’t ever want a spring of 2020 again,” Tackett said.
No one does.
Still, I wonder if basketball could not have been extended a few more weeks with the state tourney in early to mid April with spring sports then extended to mid or late June after graduation — and that would mean a lot of spring sports events held in much better weather than what they often are now.
No, that’s not a normal schedule but nothing about this year has been normal and no matter how you do it there is no “fair” solution for everyone. Basketball players who play spring sports deserve the opportunity to compete in those sports.
Bottom line, though, is that the KHSAA is trying to make impossible decisions wit no right or wrong answers based on what we know now, especially with the way things change daily.
If seven weeks of regular season basketball is what we get and then postseason play, that’s better than no weeks of basketball or other winter sports. Same with the spring. Maybe spring sports won’t get a full season either, but any season will be better than no season.
