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LHSAA announces cancellation of 2019-2020 winter and spring sports seasons

Major changes coming to LHSAA championship structure
Posted at 11:51 AM, Apr 09, 2020
and last updated 2020-04-09 20:33:39-04

The Louisiana High School Athletic Association says that all remaining 2019-2020 winter sports championships and spring sports regular seasons are canceled.

The Executive Committee issued a memo on Thursday, April 9 making the announcement.

The committee says that the cancellations were made due to the severity of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of protecting the health and safety of athletes, families, spectators, coaches and game officials.

The cancellations also coincides with Wednesday's request from the Louisiana Association of State Superintendents to the governor to keep school facilities closed for the remainder of the school year.

In the memo, LHSAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine said that a discussion was held about senior athletes affected by the cancellations.

"This decision was not in haste and was discussed with tremendous concern for those senior athletes being affected," Bonine said in a press release. "We realize and concur with the argument about returning to normalcy and allowing seniors to have their moment, just like we did for boys' basketball championships, unfortunately, circumstances today are tremendously different than circumstances were that week in March."

Bonine says the focus now for the committee is continuing to follow any and all mitigation measures set forth by Governor Edwards.

The committee plans to discuss potential permissive summer activities and make proactive plans should the virus affect the opening of schools and the beginning of the LHSAA 2020-2021 fall sports seasons.

See the full memo below: