Marysville’s Kindall Duke (left) battles an opponent for the ball during a 2019 soccer match. High school teams in Ohio will be permitted to begin contact practices on Monday. (Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
Another step was taken on Thursday in the quest to return normalcy to the state’s high school sports.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Lt. Governor John Husted announced that contact practices for all high school sports will be permitted to begin on Monday, June 22.
The announcement will permit fall sports, including football, to advance to the next step toward beginning their seasons on time in August.
Winter sports and spring sports squads will also be permitted to conduct more of their normal activities.
High school sports teams were permitted to begin workouts earlier this month under a no-contact guideline.
Limited numbers of athletes were permitted in one area at any given time to comply with social distancing mandates.
Husted said it will be up to each individual school district as to whether teams will be permitted to begin full contact practices next week.
Marysville High School athletic director Joey Day said Thursday afternoon he had not yet heard of the state’s ruling.
“I haven’t been able to connect with the district (administration) about this,” he said. “Right now, we don’t have a plan to put into action.”
Day said district administrators will have to get together in order to come up with guidelines for contact practices.
“There are a lot of channels to go through,” he said. “I would imagine we will have an outline for this sometime next week.
“We want to go about this with caution and safety in mind for everyone,” said Day.
“We don’t want to put any strain on the kids.”