by Don Richeson –
Middlesex County Public Schools (MCPS) will not participate in any Virginia High School League (VHSL) sports this month. The restriction also applies to all out-of-season conditioning programs. MCPS families received the announcement via email Tuesday, Dec. 1 from Superintendent Peter Gretz.
“We are making this decision in order to best protect the health and safety of our students, staff and families, after weeks of intense and careful deliberation,” Dr. Gretz wrote in the email. “We continue to closely monitor available health data which shows a significant increase in COVID-19 cases across our region. While our experience in Middlesex, specifically, is much better than those in surrounding communities right now, our student-athletes will compete with other athletes across the region and state. To ignore the data in those communities would be to place our students and their families, as well as our staff at an increased risk.”
The VHSL had announced this fall that it would permit some sports under its Championship + 1 calendar. Under the plan, boys and girls basketball games would start this month, as would contests in indoor track, swim and wrestling. Some area schools, including Lancaster High School, have reportedly already started workouts as a result of the plan.
Gretz said MCPS will reassess things in January 2021 to see if Middlesex athletes can participate in sports that now have February 2021 start dates. This includes the traditional fall sports that the VHSL moved to then as a result of this school year’s COVID-19 situation.
Be sure to pick up a copy of the Dec. 10 print edition of the Southside Sentinel for more on this developing story.
