Telegraph file photo by TOM KING NHIAA Executive Director Jeff Collins is hoping the winter can give high school athletes the same opportunity to compete that the fall has despite the pandemic.

Time to check in with the Exec Direct.

And he must be going stir crazy.

The New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Executive Director Jeff Collins, who has been scrambling since last March, like most education athletic officials, to make high school sports work this fall, hasn’t done the one thing he enjoys the most.

“I haven’t gone to a game this year,” he said. “It’s only home fans. The best part of my job is leaving my office and going to games. But I’m really conscious of the fact that only home fans are going to these, and why should I have the opportunity that a visitor fan doesn’t?”

So he’s looking forward to the fall tournament season, which is unlike any other we’ve seen before.

Telegraph Sports Reporter Tom KIng.

Life’s been interesting for the NHIAA, its member schools, etc. The latest news of the week was positive: the winter sports dates guidelines. It beats a cancellation like we had last spring, with light workouts allowed to start Nov. 30, full tryouts/practices not before Dec. 14, and games not before Jan. 11.

“Look, I think it follows along with what happened with the fall,” Collins said. “Everybody’s in agreement we have no idea what this winter’s going to bring.

“But everybody’s in agreement we have to slow play it a little bit to figure out how schools are going to deal with the holiday season. It was a really good conversation with the Council, we received a lot of good feed back from the division athletic directors.”

The winter, you see, is an entirely different animal than the fall.

“In order to get the schools back up and their feet underneath them for this winter,” Collins said, “it was certainly prudent to delay the start of the winter season and to allow the holidays to pass through and start competitons after the new year.”

Smartly, the NHIAA didn’t set any end dates. There’s just too much up in the air right now. Hockey is an endangered species, given the state ordered two week shutdown. A break is fine, but there has to be a way to figure out how to stay safe with that sport. Yes, the way the NHL did.

Wrestling? Again, ultimate contact indoor sport in a non-contact world.

“Again, schools are concerned about what’s happening over the holidays,” Collins said. “People going away, having to quarantine for 14 days.So this allows that flexibility, lets schools have solid contact with their winter athletes, work with those kids and kind of ease into that transition. As we did in the fall. Kind of mimics that fall thing.”

That “fall thing” has worked well, but we all knew there’d be bumps and bruises.

Collins stressed the dates are guidelines as much as rules. Nashua athletic director Lisa Gingras has strongly hinted Division I may start later because many schools will need to go through the political/school board approval proecess that they did in the fall. Given that things are indoors and the fact that for hockey (private rinks) and track (colleges, which likely won’t approve use), gymnastics and swimming (private facilities) are out of the school’s control, approvals are no slam dunk.

Collins said the same. “We’ve got to see about pools, and I don’t know if we’re going to get indoor track,” he said. “This allows some time to dig into some of those things.”

They’ll do the close opponents, the open tournaments, etc. It allows everyone to compete, and compete for a state championship. But the indoor aspect is what is concerning.

“Look, you’re concerned about everything, right?” Collins said. “We’re having some really good conversations with the wrestling committee to try to figure out what wrestling looks like. We’re having conversations with all the New England states, what they’re doing across the country.

“Ice hockey certainly, with the pause that was placed by the Governor’s re-openig committee these two weeks is something you have to take a look at. You’re concerned about a sport like winter track, what venues will be available to us for the regular season and post season.”

So the NHIAA will again be putting their collective administrative thinking caps on.

“We’re looking to be creative,” Collins said. “The whole guiding principle for this whole year is giving the kids the opportunity to compete in any way, shape or form.”

Is he happy with how the fall season has gone, even with all its trials and tribulations?

The answer is a resounding yes.

“We’ve been a small part of that,” Collins said. “The larger part is the athletic directors and the individual schools.

“Specifically in (the Nashua) area, the athletic directors have done an incredible job to figure out how to make this whole thing work, from going to school board meetings and meetings within their own schools to figure out safe ways to move forward, that nature.

“It’s a heavy lift for them. We’re right there with them. But whenever you can, give them an ‘Attaboy’ or an “Attagirl.'”

That goes without saying. Tournament time is upon us, and hey, we might even see the Exec Direct at a game.

Let’s hope so, because as he said, he doesn’t get out much these days.

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