Prince William high school athletics teams won’t compete this fall

Prince William County Public Schools students will be headed back to class virtually on September 8, but athletes who play scholastic won’t return to the field.

Prince William County Coles District Supervisor Yesli Vega writes to her constituents:

At the August 19th Prince William County School Board Meeting, it was announced that athletic teams would be able to start out-of-season workouts on September 10th. Teams will only be allowed to do outdoor conditioning, and athletes are not allowed to train indoors. Athletes are not allowed to use equipment and will be subjected to daily health-screening surveys and temperature checks.

The Virginia High School League (VHSL) is the principal sanctioning organization for public school athletics in the state. The VHSL was scheduled to approve the regular season and state championship schedule for the 2020 school year on Monday, August 31st. The VHSL Executive Committee postponed their decision to September 17th to that they could have “an additional two weeks to review and discuss feedback from membership before adopting the final schedule.”
High school began out-of-season workouts in Fairfax County Public Schools on June 23rd, and in Loudoun County Public Schools on July 15th. Stafford County and Fauquier County Public Schools have not announced their plans to resume athletic activities yet.

The principal sanctioning organization for private school athletics in the state is the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA). In July, VISSA announced that there would be no state championships for the fall sports this year. However, VISSA is allowing schools to compete if they chose to so.

Some private high schools in the area have opted to have student athletes compete this fall. For example, Seton School in the City of Manassas will be playing cross country, soccer, volleyball, and girls tennis.

All private schools in the region have implemented different measures to accommodate for the current circumstances, such as temperature checks for athletes, singles only tennis, and other guidelines to enforce social distancing.

Some schools have announced that they are scheduled to compete against other private schools in the region this fall in some sports. Other private schools have chosen to only compete intramurally, and are looking to create a “bubble” similar to some professional sports leagues.