Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear is expected to make a decision later this week on whether to approve the KHSAA Board of Control vote to begin the sports seasons early next month.
The board of control overwhelmingly approved to continue its previous restart plan last week. Under the plan, cross country, football, soccer, and volleyball can begin full practices this week after a month of conditioning and no-contact drills. Scheduled games in soccer, cross country, and volleyball would begin the week of Sept. 7 with the football season kicking off Sept. 11.
Two other proposals that would have pushed back the start of the seasons until late September were voted down.
Hours after the KHSAA vote, Beshear said he was surprised by the vote and said he would take a look at the proposal before deciding if he would be in favor. Any action taken by the KHSAA board of control must be approved by the Kentucky Department of Education, the state department of health, and Beshear. It’s not known who has the final say in the approval.
WLEX-TV reported Monday that Beshear’s office hasn’t received the KHSAA’s proposal. A spokesperson for the governor said Beshear expects to have that proposal by mid-week. After then, he’s expected to make recommendations, if not a ruling.
Over 200 students, parents, and coaches held a hastily scheduled protest outside the state capitol Monday morning as part of the ‘Let Them Play’ movement. Student-athletes are worried concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic will result in the cancellation of the fall sports season like what happened in the spring.
On Sunday, Beshear said COVID-19 numbers were in a plateau across the state. However, Churchill Downs reversed their course Friday and announced that next month’s Kentucky Derby will be run without fans after a previous plan was presented that would have seen 23,000 fans in attendance. Many are worried the governor will use the horse racing venue as an example of why high school sports this fall should be pushed back or canceled.
Kentucky’s rolling seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases was 635.7 on Sunday, which was the ninth day in the last 12 that number has been above 600. However, the state’s positivity rate Saturday was 4.8-percent, which dipped below 5-percent for the first time since July 23.
High school football was played in Indiana and Tennessee last Friday with other sports in those states already underway.
According to information from the COVID-19 tracking website worldometers.com, Kentucky ranks 33rd in the nation in total COVID-19 cases and 31st in total deaths linked to the virus. However, the state has reported 4,146 more cases this month than in the first 23 days of July. The death rate is also up 25 this month compared to July.
The state’s COVID-19 website said 9.4-percent of the state’s total cases linked to the coronavirus come from people aged 10-19. There has been only one death in the state linked to COVID-19 of a person under the age of 30.
