I hope everyone is staying safe and is healthy. As Mr. Galey said earlier today, these are unprecedented times. I know with decisions of the state of Indiana and the Lawrenceburg Community School Corporation there are a lot of questions among coaches, athletes, and parents regarding our athletic programs and in particular the future of the 2020 Spring sports season.
I wanted to take a moment to discuss the direction of our athletic programs during these turbulent times.
The IHSAA sent out a memo detailing that it hopes to still have a spring season. At this moment, every LHS Athletic Program is now considered in-school-out-of-season per the IHSAA by-laws. This means there cannot be any school sponsored athletic practices or workouts. This includes limited contact workouts that were supposed to start in April. Student-athletes can workout on their own, which is highly encouraged.
If the state of Indiana and LCSC allow us to be back to a normal schedule on May 4, 2020, then spring sports will be able to start that day. Spring sports student-athletes then will only need five practices with their LHS team before they could compete for the Tigers. This means that theoretically, we could have spring sporting events as early as May 9, 2020. What an athletic schedule would look like, I do not know at this moment. It is the plan to meet with other conference athletic directors in the coming weeks to discuss schedules and rescheduling games.
We are asking coaches, during this lay-off, to please stay in contact with their student-athletes. It is the LHS Athletic Department’s hope that coaches will communicate with student-athletes through email or have team meetings through Google Hangout or Zoom, to talk leadership, or just have a chance to see how everyone is doing. We also encourage our student-athletes to run, lift, throw, hit golf balls and tennis balls, etc., on their own, while still practicing social distancing.
The only caveat is that our campus will be closed. The campus is only open to essential personnel. This means student-athletes cannot use our track, baseball/softball diamond, tennis courts, soccer fields, the turf field, or gyms. They can, however on their own, go to parks, workout in their homes, run on trails, etc. Yet, still practice social distancing.
During this time we would like to have the school community post pictures to the athletic twitter feed, @LburgTigers, of our athletes in action from previous seasons. Please use the hashtag #LburgHOPE.
It would also be great for our student-athletes to post pictures/videos to the athletic twitter account, @LburgTigers, of the creative workouts that they are doing to stay in shape. Whether this is flipping tires, lifting cinder blocks, running hills, doing push-ups or pull-ups, etc., while they are working out on their own.
Once spring break is over, the athletic department will be contacting spring sport senior athletes, in an effort to highlight our spring sport seniors on the athletic web-site. This gives them an opportunity to be recognized, in a year where that recognition is limited or may not happen on the field of play..
Tigers, stay safe, keep exercising, and most importantly keep practicing social distancing. We will see everyone soon!