Photo: Lance Hinton/recruit757
On Monday morning, Virginia Beach announced the termination of in-person learning
by Andy Hilton, recruit757
Due to reports of rising positive test results for COVID-19, Virginia Beach Public Schools announced that all classes would be virtual as of Tuesday, December 8. This affects the start of winter sports at the high school level, which was due to commence this week.
“As of today, all activities related to varsity winter sports are postponed until further notice,” a letter to Virginia Beach City Public Schools families and staff said.
Norfolk Public Schools and Portsmouth Public Schools immediately followed suit, postponing the start of the winter season for their schools.
Steve Suttmiller, Director of Athletics for Norfolk Public Schools, stated that practices for all winter sports would be delayed for at least a week.
The NPS website confirmed: “All winter sports have been delayed until Monday, December 14, 2020. Practices for Basketball, Indoor Track, Wrestling, and Swimming will begin that day. Please check with your schools’ Athletic Director for scheduled times. Winter competition dates will begin on Tuesday, January 5, 2021. All schedules can be found on NPS’ Athletics web page.”
“There will be no tournaments over the holidays. We will not start playing games until after the first of the year,” Suttmiller stated.
Portsmouth Public Schools Director of Athletics Vincent Pugh confirmed that the start of practices has been pushed back a week, but conditioning for high school athletes in Winter Sports would continue.
Chesapeake Public Schools supervisor of Public Relations, Richie Babb, shared with PilotOnline that they will continue with winter sports practices with no change in plans.
“There are no discussions about postponing the start of games,” Babb told the Pilot.
On the Peninsula, the Bay Rivers District will start their basketball season with a 12-game schedule tipping off in early January. The Peninsula District will play a nine-game schedule starting on January 12.
Delays in the winter sports schedule has renewed talk that the football season for public schools in Virginia may get delayed as well. Winter sports are now the ‘Canary in the Coal Mine,’ giving fans, coaches, parents and athletes an indicator of what to expect moving forward.
– Andy Hilton
