ST. GEORGE — After Gov. Gary Herbert announced on Tuesday that school closures would extend through the school year, the Utah High School Activities Association announced that spring sports would be canceled.
The announcement comes a month after the UHSAA suspended spring activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The cancellation also prohibits the use of school facilities for organized practices and team gatherings and will remain in effect until further notice.
“Once the governor and superintendent released their recommendations, our board of trustees quickly came to the decision that the UHSAA would follow suit and cancel all remaining spring activities including state championships,” UHSAA Assistant Director Jon Oglesby said in a press release.
The UHSAA is hopeful that fall sports will go on as planned, but no decisions have been made, according to the release.
They will continue to follow orders given by the state to make a decision on fall sports and their season.
“At this point, we are focused, as we’ve been throughout this entire situation, with short term because things are changing so rapidly,” Ogelsby said. “At some point in the future, the association staff, as well as our governing boards, will sit down to have more in-depth conversations about what that might look like. But until we’re closer to that point, we’re planning on the fall continuing as scheduled at this time.”
When asked about moratoriums and how they would be changed because of the spring cancellation, Oglesby said those decisions will be figured out in the coming weeks. The governing board will come to a decision, and then the schools will be notified based on the changes or the lack thereof.
“Our governing boards today had to make the decision and we feel very sad for all of the high school student-athletes who were planning on competing this spring,” Oglesby added.
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