Telegraph file photo by TOM KING Merrimack's Kyle Crampton would be the likely heir apparent to the starting QB job for the Tomahawks, but a final decision by the Merrimack school board on whether to play football has not yet been made.

The approval vote has been taken, and now the work in trying to get some semblance of a fall sports season underway, which was extensive enough to begin with, continues for Nashua Athletics Director Lisa Gingras with the clock ticking.

“It’s been a lot of work,” Gingras said. “And now even more work. And we’ve got to get cranking. Pre-season night, I’m planning a month for that, and I’ve got to get that out (via video links) in the next few days.”

The Nashua school district is now officially all in on fall sports, and the NHIAA has set Sept. 8 as the first day to practice. But now Gingras and the other Division I athletic directors who know their district situations have to come up with schedules, etc. – work that is normally done during the previous school year. They have been meeting on Mondays on a regular basis.

Another local high school got approval for all fall sports – excpet football. The Merrimack school board Wednesday night approved athletic director Mike Soucy and the administration’s proposal for fall sports, but that proposal didn’t include football. The board tabled any vote on football to further research the possibility, and is expected to make a decision within the next two weeks.

“There were things I could do to mitigate (risks) for every other sport,” Soucy said, “except for football. … It broke my heart to present it the way I did. I love the sport of football. It’s a huge part of our school.

“But we’ll carry (the board’s decision) out. Ultimately it’s (the board’s) call.”

In Nashua, Gingras’ next main task is to get videos out to take the place of a regular parents sports information night, get information for registration, impact testing, and all the safety protocols.

“The biggest thing is education and communication at this point,” she said. “Information will be coming, every student at the two high schools and every student at the three middle schools will be getting information from me.”

Impact testing, Gingras said, is set for Aug. 31 and Sept. 2 by appointment. The other step is game scheduling, and that’s a variable that depends on other locales.

“We’re hoping by the end of next week, hopefully by September first, we’ll have a firm grasp on who is playing what, and we’ll be able to start putting some schedules together,” Gingras said. “To be honest, if we’re able to limit it to five, six or seven schools in a cluster, those aren’t that difficult to put together.”

Again, schedules will be shortened, probably cut in half, for most sports as many of them, except for golf, won’t start until Sept. 18 and football Sept. 25. Golf will begin on Sept. 10.

The NHIAA will have open tournaments for most sports, and teams will not need a minimum number of games to participate. The exceptions are golf and football – golf is stipulation 10 matches, which seems certainly doable. Football decision makers haven’t ironed out anything yet because many schools – like Merrimack – are still deciding whether to play the sport.

“It all depends on how many teams are playing,” Gingras said. “If we can get in anywhere from four to six games, we’re going to try to do it.”

Alvirne is expected to decide its fall sports stance/offerings by early September. Bedford officials sent out a letter to parents saying there will be no football, soccer, cheer or crew, but sports that would be allowed would be bass fishing, cross country, field hockey, golf, and volleyball – but the latter would have to be outdoors.

Elsewhere, Concord reportedly is all in, while Salem and Exeter are expected to decide early next week. Sources say Manchester Memorial and Central are OK with low and medium risk sports, but have yet to decide on high risk such as football. That decision is expected next week. It’s not yet known if Manchester West is included in all of that; if not, a decision there should be expected next week as well.

Soucy’s ideal situation, he said, would be to schedule no more than one sport playing on any given day during the week, and then games on the weekends.

“I can’t have multiple teams playing on the same day,” he said.

And as for fan attendance, no capacity has been set yet with one exception – no visiting team fans will be allowed at Merrimack. Also, given the fact that anything concerning the coronavirus constantly changes, Soucy plans on having senior recognition days/nights when each sport plays its first home game, in case a season gets cut short.

As an example, Gingras told the Board of Education on Wednesday that if an athlete on a team did test positive, then state and CDC guidelines would be followed. That would likely result in that team having to quarantine, etc. and its season would be lost for 14 days.

If football is denied in Merrimack, Soucy said he would be open to a plan for the team to at least have workouts, practices, etc. But he is hoping officials make a decision by Sept. 1 so if there is no football, those athletes could move on to other sports, either at MHS or outside the school.

“We are in an interesting predicament,” he said. “We’re in between two communities, one that is all in, Nashua, and another that is taking a conservative approach in Bedford.”