BATON ROUGE, La. — High school football games will not be played in Louisiana until the state enters Phase Four of reopening.
That was the message from LHSAA’s Executive Director Eddie Bonine during his presentation to the House Education Committee on Monday, July 13.
Louisiana is currently in Phase 2 and will remain there until at least July 24.
Bonine noted that there hasn’t been any messages from the LHSAA that they would cancel Fall sports. Instead, they’ve been in lockstep with schools and are sticking to recommendations from the White House, CDC and National Federation of High Schools.
“When it comes to what could potentially happen, what’s the season going to look like, what the timeline is going to look like it all depends on when we get students back to school,” Bonine said.
Bonine gave the committee a chart showing which athletic activities can take place during which phases of reopening the state. No practice or scrimmaging is allowed during Phase 2 for football, basketball, soccer and wrestling.
In phase three, football players can return to practice, but can not do contact drills or scrimmages.
Previously, State Sen. Cleo Fields, the Senate Education Chairman, called on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to cancel all Fall sports. BESE responded, saying it doesn’t have the authority to call off sports for public schools.
In a statement, the board says that decision is up to local school leaders and the Louisiana High School Athletic Association.
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