KHSAA Board of Control meeting Thursday eliminates normal dead period, sets guidelines for month of June

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association Board of Control held an online meeting Thursday afternoon where board members discussed, at length, the possibilities for the resumption of school sports activities in the month of June.

Prior to the discussion about how school athletic programs should proceed into the summer months, board members agreed that any and all decisions made would follow the guidelines set forth by the office of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.

It was also announced that there would be no considerations for athletes to gain extra eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As for the month of June, KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett said his wish is to “Get kids back with their coaches sooner rather than later.”

A lengthy conversation between Tackett and the members of the board ultimately resulted in a 13-5 vote in favor of eliminating the association’s yearly mandated dead period between the dates of June 25 and July 9. With a few exceptions, the general consensus among the board was that, considering teams have already been under a dead period since March, enforcing the normal dead period would not be in the best interest of the student-athletes in the state of Kentucky.

With that important decision made, the board then set about establishing a timeline that school administrators could use to help guide coaches on how to interact with their teams. Many more points of concern were raised during the course of this discussion, but in the end an agreement was made to allow meetings between coaching personnel and student-athletes beginning Monday, June 1.

Assuming there are no amendments to state or federal policy that would prevent such meetings from taking place, they will be allowed to continue through June 14, as long as all necessary safety guidelines are followed. Team workouts (not competition) may resume on June 15, but once again, these must follow all of the state and federal guidelines in place at that time.

One important note is that current guidelines dictate no groups of ten or more people should be gathering together in close proximity at any given time. Obviously, this will also apply to any team meetings taking place in the near future.

Nothing was discussed Thursday pertaining to regular season play for the fall of 2020, with details not likely to be announced until later this summer. The situation remains fluid, with rules and regulations subject to change at any time should state and/or federal leaders deem it necessary.

After Thursday’s meeting, the KHSAA stated via their official Twitter account, “Following today’s Board of Control meeting, staff will review policies and procedures based off today’s action and issue updated guidelines on Friday.”

The association’s full 13-page official release can be viewed here: http://khsaa.org/resources/Covid19/khsaajune2020covidallowancesandrestrictions.pdf

To view Thursday’s meeting in its entirety, visit the KHSAA’s official YouTube channel.