California High School is working on trying to get some summer competition going for the baseball team.
The Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA) announced last month it will consider seniors as enrolled students through the summer and also adjusted its limits on contact days during the summer. The changes pave the way for potential interscholastic competition in the coming months.
California Athletic Director Rick Edwards said the school is trying to work on setting a possible schedule for the team over the summer.
"The baseball team, when we heard that we can have groups of people participating in sports, has about six to eight teams that they are going to schedule games with each other, at home and away," Edwards said. "The coaches don't have the schedule yet because they are waiting for permission from (the) higher ups that they can do it."
The permission will have to come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and from Gov. Mike Parson. It is uncertain when the team will be able to play during the summer.
"In order to play, the state has to lift the stipulations that there can be enough people together that we can have practices. We don't have any idea when they will announce that," Edwards said.
MSHSAA Communications Director Jason West said the MSHSAA Board of Directors granted relief of the bylaw that said teams at schools could only have 20 contact days over the summer. West said schools must follow any guidelines given out by health officials, though.
"So a school could choose to have more than 20 contact days if they are allowed to have face-to-face interaction with a large group," West said. "The only stipulation to that is that schools must still follow any local, state, or national guidelines as far as number of people within a group, social distancing 6 feet apart, those types of things. If there are any guidelines and recommendations from the local health officials, or state health officials, or the CDC, then teams must still follow those guidelines."
Games could be played any time throughout the summer. West said schools could choose to forgo their dead period for this summer to have more opportunities for contact days - if they wanted to schedule games where they could have a senior recognition, for example, they could.
"One of the other bylaws that the board granted relief of was the summer contact period. That was a time frame that a school predetermined within a window during the summer that they would not have any practices, camps, or contact between coaches and players, in order to have a week's worth of time that families could plan vacations and that coaches and administrators could have a guaranteed time away from school," West said.