ConVal administration proposed a winter sports plan that would allow Cougar teams to compete in regional NHIAA competition in the upcoming season.
The NHIAA, New Hampshire’s high school sports governing body, announced its timeline for the winter on Oct. 16, with conditioning and skills and drills approved to start Nov. 30, practices approved to start Dec. 14, and interscholastic full-game competition approved to start Jan. 11, 2021.
“It is the recommendation of the administration to follow the NHIAA Council’s timeline,” ConVal athletic director John Reitnauer wrote in a presentation made public on Oct. 19.
Unlike the fall season, where ConVal’s Blue and Gold cohort system was a major obstacle in forming full teams, the winter sports proposal would allow both cohorts to mix and form teams, with all student-athletes going to full remote learning until 14 days after their final competition. Student-athletes would have to sign a “COVID waiver.”
ConVal’s usual slate of winter sports teams is basketball, ice hockey, indoor track, alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, spirit and wrestling.
“We want to play,” ConVal girls’ basketball coach Kevin Proctor tweeted from the team account Saturday. “The lessons we learn from basketball transcend the gym.”
The winter sports proposal will be heard by the ConVal School Board at Tuesday night’s meeting.
If approved, ConVal will likely create a regional schedule to play other schools in the area, regardless of division, such as Conant and Monadnock.
If the board does not approve the proposal, the fallback option is another season of coach-led team practices similar to the fall season, with the option for student-athletes to mix cohorts for a brief period. ConVal’s reopening plan includes a period from Jan. 4-15 in which all students will learn remotely following the holidays. According to the proposed fallback plan, student-athletes could start the season split up by cohorts like the fall season, or join cohorts during the remote learning period.
“If the preference is that cohorts be combined,” the proposal reads, “before in person learning begins, there will be a fourteen day quarantine for the athletes. Once in-person learning begins on January 19, 2021, all ConVal High School athletes who participate will continue based on the high school’s Blue and Gold Cohort mode.”