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Unrestricted School Activities May Resume June 1 After OSSAA Board Narrowly Votes Down Phased Return

KWGS News File photo

The Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association Board rejected by one vote on Friday a set of guidelines for summer workouts and practices intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The rejected guidelines laid out a three-phased plan to resume full activities in August, which started with strength and conditioning sessions under safety precautions like temperature checks for most of June. OSSAA Board Member Jason Sternberger said he wanted a plan more in line with Gov. Kevin Stitt’s state reopening.

"You know, we’re already in phase two of his plan, where kids are — I mean, everybody saw the Facebook this past weekend, all the baseball diamonds and private gyms were full," Sternberger said.

Unrestricted activities can now resume June 1 following current OSSAA policies, including a dead week at the end of June. The board will meet again June 9 and could still, however, make changes to school activities.

OSSAA Board President Cecilia Robinson-Woods said summer workouts and practices will be students’ first time back in a school environment since March and would have been the best opportunity to instill good habits before an uncertain fall.

"If we don’t teach them the correct habits, phasing back into the fall is going to be very difficult for all of us because that cat’s going to be out of the bag. And what we are all spending an enormous amount of time [on] this summer is planning how this fall is going to look," Robinson-Woods said.

OSSAA canceled spring sports and the state basketball tournament because of COVID-19.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.
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