The long-awaited decision on fall sports is expected to be made by the Maine Principal's Association on Thursday. However today we received some good news as the Sports Medicine Committee met and recommended all fall sports be played with individual sport guidelines to be followed.
The Sports Medicine Committee has recommended the following for cross-country
- Alterations to widened the narrowest points on course to six feet.
- At the starting line athlete will wear disposable face coverings and drop them before the race starts
- On the starting line, athletes should be six feet apart
- Staggered, waves or interval starts are recommended
- As well as separate finishing corrals
- Meets will fall under the auspices of 'mass gatherings' guidelines, so large teams might need to limit participants.
- Possibility of using cloth masks and athletes can hold for the duration of the race
The decision now lies with the MPA Interscholastic Management Committee who will be meeting tomorrow.
An interesting bit of information that came out of the meeting was that meets would need to adhere to the state's mass gatherings' guidelines so championship meets like Festival of Champions, Regional & State meets might not be able to happen. Further guidelines are expected to be discussed at Thursday's meeting.
A virtual meet isn't a possibility in cross-country as each course is different unless all athletes ran on the same course.
If the MPA proceeds with Fall sports, it will be up to the local school districts to determine if they will sponsor competitive athletics at their schools this fall. Camden Hills and Deer-Isle Stonington have already opted out prior to the MPA announcement.