Questions regarding whether the state of Arizona will have a fall sports season and how it will go about occurring in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could be answered in the coming weeks.
As it looks ahead to the possibility of having a fall sports season, the Arizona Interscholastic Association will soon be sending surveys out to all member schools.
“In order for the AIA to make the most informed decisions regarding the starting of athletic activity this fall, two surveys will be e-mailed to each member school principal in July that will gauge schools’ plans on reopening for students and reinstatement of athletic teams,” the AIA said in a statement.
The first survey, which will be sent in regards to football and fall soccer, will be sent in early July. For Sedona Red Rock High School, fall soccer is the only relevant sport in that survey as the Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board voted in May to cancel the SRRHS football program for the 2020-21 school year. That survey will be due to the AIA by Friday, July 10.
The remaining fall sports — badminton, swimming and diving, girls volleyball, golf, and cross country — begin their official practices later in the fall. As such, their survey will be sent out later in July and due back to the AIA by July 24. Excluding badminton, the Scorpions participate in all of those sports, though golf is a spring sport at SRRHS.
The AIA Crisis Management Committee, which consists of the AIA staff, Executive Board members as well as representatives from all conferences, will meet on the Monday following both deadlines. At that point, they will evaluate the survey responses from all schools and then figure out the next course of action for the fall seasons in the given sports.
Additionally, answers that the schools give in the surveys can be altered at a later date when and if their individual situations change.
“Schools will not be locked into any answers that they provide on these surveys,” the statement said. “They are merely tools to help in the process.”
