The Virginia High School League made an attempt at filling in some of the details about the condensed season schedule with a draft proposal presented at the VHSL Executive Committee work session Monday.
The proposal is just a draft and is by no means the final plan that the VHSL will adopt for the condensed season currently set to begin in December — it’s better to think of it as a work in progress.
The draft plan proposes opening the winter season on December 7 for basketball with the other winter sports to follow December 14. That allows basketball to play 14 games without wedging three games into a week. Football would start February 2 under the proposal with other fall sports to follow February 15. That allows football six games over that stretch.
Postseason-wise, the proposal leaves room for region playoffs and state semis and a championship in each sport. Spring sports would potentially start April 12 and wrap up with the VHSL finals on June 26. More sport-specific details are available in the table below.
“I want to be clear that this work session was not intended to produce a final plan. The purpose of the work session was to provide a draft to the Executive Committee for the FY2021 sports and academic season and for the process of building a plan for regular season and postseason,” said VHSL Executive Director Billy Haun in a release. “The various staff meetings with coaches, athletic directors, principals, and superintendent representatives discussed at length the challenges, including health, safety, and financial considerations of implementing any schedule options.”
It should probably go without saying at this point that any details are subject to change and likely contingent on local school board policies as well as whether or not students are able to have in-person education in winter when the schedule starts.
“We appreciate the hard work and feedback our region athletic directors, coaches, principals, and other representatives provided to our staff during region meetings and through our coaches advisory committees,” Haun said. “Our newly formed Student Advisory Committee also provided invaluable feedback as well.”
