Athletic Director Mr. Thome received this message from the WIAA who asked him to share:
Greetings,
We are well aware of a news item posted on the WNFL radio website yesterday that misrepresents the existing reality with regard to football and fall sports. No new announcement was made from our office about the status of fall sports, and an excerpt from an interview with a different media outlet was taken out of context and used as the source.
Safety and health continue to be our biggest concerns. More accurately, we are optimistic and hopeful that our schools will be able to provide fall sports. But it will ultimately come down to local and state health leaders who are the experts determining if our schools can provide sport opportunities to their student-athletes.
We have been involved in some very detailed and intensive communication with the DHS, DPI and the governor's office - near daily - as we work with our sport medical advisory to develop summer contact guidance for our members should they be able to reopen and offer sports. However, it is not finalized yet. We will be discussing the potential opportunities with our committees beginning with the Sports Advisory on Monday. We have been keeping WADA informed of our efforts to develop guidance.
We know and understand the interest in all of this and have been working hard to get it right. We hold out hope that our student-athletes will have opportunities in July and in the fall.
In regards to fall sports, what we are sharing with anyone who asks:
1. At this point nothing has been canceled.
2. That status can change as other virus developments might emerge.
3. We HOPE kids might return to their schools come fall, and if they do and if schools reopen, we will do our best to have a plan and guidance that our members might choose to use - along with input from state and local health authorities - to decide locally if they can resume their sport and activity programs.
Respectfully,
WIAA Executive Staff