First Texas high school cancels football, volleyball seasons due to COVID-19
The first cancellation of a high school sports program due to COVID-19 has reached the state of Texas.
Ben Bolt High School, a Class 2A school outside of Corpus Christi, is the first in the state to cancel the 2020 football and volleyball seasons due to the coronavirus.
According to Quinton Martinez of the Corpus Christi Caller Times, the Ben Bolt-Palito Blanco ISD school board voted to start school online for the first nine weeks through Oct. 9. The district wasn’t going to allow practices for extracurricular activities to begin until Oct. 3.
“After close consideration and out of an abundance of caution, we have decided to suspend all UIL fine arts and athletic activities until after the first nine week reporting period or October 30, 2020,” said superintendent Mike A. Barrera in a press release last week.
Activities wouldn’t start until the end of October to allow for an acclimatization period and matches wouldn’t start until November, making it impossible to play football and especially volleyball.
Schools in Class 4A and below were allowed to start fall practice on Aug. 3. Volleyball matches begin Aug. 10, while football kicks off Aug. 27-29. Class 6A and 5A have been delayed until Sept. 7.
The Badgers wouldn’t have been able to play a single volleyball game as district play ends Oct. 27. Football playoffs begin mid-November and their state title games run Dec. 16-19.
At least 12 states have pushed back their high school seasons to spring, including California, Virginia, Oregon, Washington and Nevada.
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 12:31 PM.
