Telegraph photo by TOM KING Bishop Guertin's Molly Finn, left, battles Manchester Central's Madison Tremblay for the ball at midfield during the Cards' 2-1 Divison I quarterfinal last fall. The NHIAA announced fall sports are a go, but practices won't be starting until Sept. 8..

NASHUA -The high school fall sports season is a go in New Hampshire, but on a delayed basis.

The New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association made it official Thursday,formally announcing it is approving a fall high school sports season statewide. It was reportedly understood in the last week this would be the action the NHIAA would take, and the NHIAA Council – comprised of various school officials (including some athletic directors), coaches, and a state school board member, formally voted to approve a fall sports season on Thursday.

However it is delaying the start of fall practices, which were originally to begin on Aug. 14 for football and Aug. 17 for everything else, until Sept. 8. Decisions on the first date to play actual games, the NHIAA said in a release, “will be forthcoming.”

Individual school districts will now have to decide whether to allow play and, if so, what sports to compete in.

Nashua High Schools North and South will most likely be competing, Nashua Athletic Director Lisa Gingras said on Thursday.

“I do believe we will,” Gingras said. “Our superintendent (Dr.Jahmal Mosley) has said a couple of times that athletics will happen.”

“We recognize that returning to interscholastic competition this fall will be individual school decisions,” the NHIAA said in a statement.

“We hope, however, that the guidelines provided by the state of New Hampshire, the NHIAA, and the actions taken thus far by the NHIAA Council will help schools and districts make informed decisions about what is best for their student-athletes this coming fall.”

Of course, the question is, when will these seasons begin. The NHIAA Council is expected to meet next week, and sources say a schedule timeline, and possible tournament format (open for most sports?) will be discussed and possibly announced by late in the week. There is a general assumption that the NHIAA may follow the normal course of time between the first day of practices and first games. In other words, if soccer was 11 days between the two, it would stay that way with the late start. Football, of course, has three weeks from the first day to practice and if that protocol is followed, the first game wouldn’t be until the end of September.

Of course, none of this is definite.

Gingras said the Division I athletic directors will meet on Monday to discuss whether to re-do the schedules, or simply toss out the games already scheduled that won’t be able to be played because of the late start.

“The question is, what does this mean for our schedules?” Gingras said. “I’m not sure I can answer that for you. … The seasons will probably be shorter, but that’s just my assumption.”

The NHIAA has established a set of guidelines, a phased approach similar to what New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu set up for summer sports back in late May/early June.

Of course, as seen on the professional level, especially baseball, the best laid plans can go awry.

“Due to high probability of recurrent outbreaks in the coming months, schools must be prepared for periodic school closures and the possibility of some teams having to isolate for two or more weeks while in-season,” the NHIAA’s guidelines said. “Each school district should develop policies regarding practice and/or competition during temporary school closures, the cancellation of contests during the regular season.”

Gingras said there would certainly be football concerns, but also concerns for some other sports. “Some are just as concerned about volleyball because it’s indoors,” she said.

Gingras said the participation level in the allowed summer workouts – allowed by the NHIAA with certain, again, phased guidelines – for all sports has been good, probably up to nine athletes a workout.

In any event, the announcement by the NHIAA was certainly better than the ones it made in March cancelling the remaining winter tournaments and then the one it made about a month later in cancelling the spring seasons.

“It’s better than what we had in March and April,” Gingras said. “Everyone is going back to school in different scenarios.

“I don’t want to say to our kids that we’re delaying your seasons, but it’s the right decision to be made given the situation. I think the kids have to get back to school first.”

Newsletter