PHOENIX — The Arizona Interscholastic Association announced Wednesday it has approved start dates for Arizona high school fall sports.
After previously reaffirming that football practices could begin Aug. 17, the AIA says it has approved a Sept. 7 first practice date with games beginning between Sept. 30 and Oct. 3.
California and Washington have moved fall sports to the winter/spring; New Mexico and Colorado moved fall contact sports to winter/spring; Oregon moved contact fall sports to begin in late September; Texas moved divisions 5A and 6A to begin on Sept. 7 but divisions 1A-4A will start normally; Florida will kick off football on Sept. 11.
Golf teams are able to begin practices the earliest of all fall sports, on Aug. 17, with competitions allowed to begin Aug. 24.
Below are the dates from the AIA for all fall sports:
The 1A-3A conferences are currently discussing possibilities regarding the length of their regular seasons and when to hold state championships.
According to the AIA, the start dates of each sport were identified based on information received from member schools regarding student and personnel safety, and what is most easily administered by athletic directors and coaches.
The AIA says the new schedule allows for schools and districts who are not able to start on the earliest possible date to join competition when feasible and still be eligible for the postseason, provided those school teams meet conference minimums.
"The health and safety of our student participants, coaches, officials and essential personnel, including volunteers, is the primary concern for the return of interscholastic athletics and activities," AIA Executive Director David Hines said in a statement. "We are very grateful to those who share our commitment of a return to these highly beneficial educational activities and athletics."
For the schools that have already canceled their fall seasons, the AIA says it will continue to work with those schools to offer opportunities for students to participate.
All fall sports will continue to operate under out-of-season/summer rules as per AIA Bylaws and Policies until the first permissible day of practice for each sport.
On June 29, the AIA moved its dates back for the fall season, saying sports practices would begin Aug. 17 and season start dates would be delayed, unless Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey made additional changes pushing those dates even further back.
Practices for Arizona high school football teams were originally supposed to begin July 27.
Team 12's Bruce Cooper spoke to multiple Valley high school football coaches about possible scenarios last month.
Arizona’s top education official Kathy Hoffman said Monday afternoon that it’s “unlikely” any schools in the state will open campus doors on Aug. 17, the date Gov. Ducey’s executive order expires.
Hoffman issued the statement Monday afternoon as AZDHS continues to build a plan for a safe reopening of classrooms just weeks before the school year begins.
Most schools have kept classrooms closed since March after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a worldwide pandemic.
The governor argued against a statewide mandate to keep campuses closed to give school districts the flexibility to cater to their own students.
Even still, Hoffman says “our state is simply not ready to have all our students and educators congregate in school facilities.”
The state’s health department was ordered by Ducey to create benchmarks for a safe reopening by Aug. 7, but some educators and physicians issued their own guidelines as districts scramble to create plans.