The resumption of Florida’s best school sports was officially approved this fall. The Florida High School Athletic Association voted Friday to allow member schools to start their season on August 24, despite the daily number of new coronavirus cases in the state that are counted in the thousands.
Nearly 800 schools are part of the association. The fall season includes bowling, cross country, football, golf, swimming and diving and women’s volleyball. As a component of the season’s approval, coaches will be required to provide schools with a “COVID waiver form.”
Florida has the current number of coronavirus cases in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University.
On Friday, the Florida Department of Health reported 6218 new cases of viruses and 228 new deaths. To date, more than 557,300 cases and more than 9,100 deaths have been reported. Most cases came here through direct contact with others who had contracted the disease, according to state data.
In the past two weeks, the state has reported 8,399 cases of coronavirus in young people under the age of 18. The maximum age organization affected in this category were students from the best schools, aged 14 to 17, with more than 3,000 cases.
Coaches who are part of the agreement must also take a COVID-19 course through the National Federation of Secondary Schools.
A video on the course’s main points page indicates that students do not have a percentage of sports towels, clothing, shoes or water bottles. It also recommends that coaches keep track of all they provide and in all likelihood require student temperatures to be taken. Anyone with a fever or bloodless symptoms within 24 hours will not be able to participate in sports.
The agreement said that this season, schools will have a minimum limit of festivals to be eligible for the State Series game. Schools have until September 18 to withdraw from the series and can set up their own regional calendar after approval through the agreement, as announced by the FHSAA.
District fall sports tournaments are scheduled to begin on October 12, for volleyball and golf, and will last until mid-December, according to the association.
The best school football season began Thursday in Utah with the impression of being the first game in the country since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Herriman High School has allowed grandstands to fill up at 25% of their capacity, with assigned and socially remote seats and mandatory face masks.