There apparently will be no crowning of a Kentucky state tournament boys’ or girls’ basketball champion in 2020 for the forseeable future. Following the conclusion of the first game of the second day of the Girls’ Sweet 16, the Kentucky High School Athetic Association made the announcement.
Reports from numerous sources began to come out towards the conclusion of the first game of the day session Thursday. Those reports indicated that teams waiting to play were seen leaving the arena after being told they would not be allowed to take the court.
This decision came less than 24 hours after officials had originally announced that beginning Friday the tournament would be played with extremely limited public attendance.
The text of the statement is below.
Based on additional information and guidance from both the Kentucky Department of Education and the Governor’s office in the last hour, at this time, the girls’ state tournament is postponed indefinitely effective with the conclusion of game five. Next week’s boys’ basketball tournament is also postponed indefinitely. The Association will try and seek options for rescheduling later in the spring if at all possible, but not until after we have received collaborative approval from our Governor’s office, the Commissioner of Public Health and the Kentucky Department of Education.
As has been stated for the last two weeks, the situation with the COVID-19 or Coronavirus is extremely fluid. As announced earlier today, our intention was to attempt to complete this first tournament with restrictions, however, this does not appear to be a wise option at this time and is not in the best interest of the student-athletes and the thousands of individuals who attend these events. The KHSAA has to make the health and welfare of the citizens of our great Commonwealth the primary factor in our decision-making process in dealing with this issue.
We are hopeful that with all of the collaborative efforts of the citizens of our Commonwealth, we see this situation subside very quickly, and we have to be leaders in that journey. We also encourage all Kentucky citizens to pay close attention to the CDC and Kentucky health information at kycovid19.ky.gov and strictly adhere to those CDC guidelines, which are always subject to revision as we learn more about the virus.
