Home Forums Long Island & Eastern New York Soccer Message Boards BOTN Main Message Board Return to play: State-by-state plans for fall high school soccer

by Paul Kennedy @pkedit,

With the start of school just around the corner, state high school associations are struggling to make decisions on the return to play in the fall.

Some are all in on fall play, others are moving some or all fall sports to the spring. Some are distinguishing between whether or not students will be learning in classroom settings, while others are allowing practice but holding off on decisions about competitive play (school vs. school).

By Monday, fall soccer practice will have been allowed to start, contingent on local regulations, in five states: Indiana (boys and girls), Ohio (boys and girls), North Dakota (boys), South Dakota (boys and girls) and Tennessee (girls).

North Dakota and South Dakota will be the first states in which high school matches will begin when the fall seasons kick off on Aug. 14.

Three states -- Illinois (boys), Nevada (boys and girls), New Mexico (boys and girls) -- and the District of Columbia have moved fall soccer to the spring as a result of changes to sports season in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of the 51 states and the District of Columbia, 41 offer boys and girls soccer in the same season -- fall, winter or spring. Ten states split the soccer seasons with all but Tennessee offering boys soccer in the fall and girls soccer in the spring.

High School fall soccer plans (by state):
Colorado-boys (practice allowed on Aug. 10; season starts on Aug. 20). (CHSAA)
Connecticut-boys & girls (practice of 15 cohorts allowed on Aug. 27, full practice allowed on Sept. 11; season starts on Sept. 24) (CIAC)
Delaware-boys (no decision has been made) (DIAA)
Idaho-boys & girls (practice allowed on Aug. 10; season starts after 10 days of practice). (IHSAA)
Illinois-boys (season moved to spring -- season starts on Feb. 13). (IHSA)
Indiana-boys & girls (practice allowed on Aug. 3; season starts on Aug. 15). (IHSAA)
Kansas-boys (practice allowed on Aug. 17; season starts on Aug. 28). (KSHSAA)
Kentucky-boys & girls (practice allowed on Aug. 24; season starts on Sept. 7). (KHSAA)
Maine-boys & girls (practice allowed on Sept. 8; season starts on Sept. 17). (MPA)
Maryland-boys & girls (practice allowed on Aug. 12; no decision on fall season) (MPSSAA)
Massachusetts-boys & girls (practice allowed on Sept. 14; season starts on Oct. 1). (MIAA)
Michigan-boys (practice allowed on Aug. 16; no decision on fall season) (MHSAA)
Minnesota-boys & girls (decision on fall season to be made Aug. 4) (MSHSL)
Missouri-boys (practice allowed on Aug. 10; season starts on Aug. 28). (MSHSAA)
Montana-boys & girls (practice allowed on Aug. 14; season starts on Aug. 27). (MHSA)
Nevada-boys & girls (season moved to spring -- practice allowed on Feb. 20; season starts on March 5). (NIAA)
New Hampshire-boys & girls (practice allowed on Sept. 8; no decision on first date of fall season). (NHIAA)
New Jersey-boys & girls (practice allowed on Sept. 14; season starts on Oct. 1). (NJSIAA)
New Mexico-boys & girls (season moved to spring -- season starts on Feb. 15). (NMAA)
New York-boys & girls (season starts on Sept. 21) (NYPHSAA)
North Carolina-boys (season starts no earlier than Sept. 1) (NCHSAA)
North Dakota-boys (practice allowed on Aug. 3; season starts on Aug. 14). (NDHSAA)
Ohio-boys (practice allowed on Aug. 1; season starts on Aug. 21) (OHSAA)
Oregon-boys & girls (practice allowed on Aug. 17; season starts on Sept. 4). (OSAA)
Pennsylvania-boys & girls (practice allowed on Aug. 17; season starts on Sept. 4). (PIAA)
Rhode Island-boys & girls (practice allowed on Aug. 20.) (RIIL)
South Dakota-boys & girls (practice allowed on Aug. 3; season starts on Aug. 14). (SDHSAA)
Tennessee-girls (practice allowed on July 29; starts on Aug. 17). (TSSAA)
Vermont-boys & girls (practice allowed on Sept. 8; season starts after 10 days of practice). (VPA)
Washington D.C-boys & girls. (season moved to spring -- practice starts on Feb. 1; season starts on Feb. 22) (DCSAA)
West Virginia-boys & girls (practice allowed on Aug. 17; season starts on Sept. 2). (WVSSAC)
Wisconsin-boys (practice allowed on Sept. 7; season starts on Sept. 15). (WIAA)

High School soccer (by season):
Fall: 31 boys, 23 girls
Winter: 7 boys, 7 girls
Spring: 13 boys, 21 girls

For NY does that mean no practice until Sept 21 or that games can begin Sept 21?

New York-boys & girls (season starts on Sept. 21) (NYPHSAA)...so my guess is practice can start prior to when games can begin on 9/21/20

Wild guess that NY HS soccer moves to Spring. Districts are doing hybrid learning, how do they expect a kid to go to school in the morning, head home for afternoon remote learning, then go back for practice? And how many games will they expect them to play a week?

Colleges aren’t even playing this fall I highly doubt that they will play in fall maybe spring

I believe that these are all guidelines but it’s at the discretion of the Governor of each State to say when and if they will allow HS Sports. They can also say no fall sports or move the fall sports to the Spring. With so much uncertainty concerning school openings as well as the logistics of in class or online it seems that school districts with move sports to the Spring which is unfair for soccer. Players have to choose club over school especially those that want to play in college.

There is no way school sports will return in NY in September. Return to full time in person classes is still very unlikely, but would need to be in place in order to even think about adding a sports schedule inclusive of bus travel and all the other logistics involved. You can’t “half way” it with some schools starting, some not, some sports on, some not, etc. Return to HS sports occurs after a 100% return to full time, in person classes. That’s Spring 2021

If they are letting kids go back to school then they should be able to play outdoor sports. You are much more likely to catch a virus from germs in a classroom with 20-30 other kids then playing soccer outdoors. Its a case by case basis for sports. Outdoor soccer is much less risky than wrestling for instance. High school is different from College also because high school can be limited to other high schools in your area whereas college is often times against teams from other states. For instance in Long Island we know that COVID is much lower than Florida at this time. So we do the smart thing and only play other Long Island teams. Not sure how you would do football however. I think the average football play is maybe 3 seconds long and the linemen spend those 3 seconds basically spitting in each others faces. If there is no in person school then I agree no sports but if they are going to have kids in class then I don't see any problem with outdoor sports like soccer.

Agree that all sports are not created equal. Seems like X country and tennis could proceed with very low risk. Field hockey and soccer low risk. Football seem much higher risk. Not sure the athletic powers that be will differentiate between them however.

I wouldn't classify soccer as low risk. Players are constantly in each others faces.

Stay tuned. The infection rate in Long Island is beginning to increase he was at 0.9 and was at 1.1 for a few days and yesterday it was at 1.3%

PA is now recommending all HS and youth sports shutdown until January.