Leading off today: Dutchess County school superintendents have set the most restrictive coronavirus-related rules thus far for the high school sports spring season by calling off all action through at least April 30.
According to Hudson Valley Sports Report, athletes will be allowed to practice but there will be no games played. That potentially leaves baseball and softball teams with the prospect of trying to squeeze their regular season into less than three weeks in May.
It's conceivable that more time can be bought by drastically reducing sectional fields and/or opting out of NYSPHSAA tournaments, but that would be yet another blow to players.
"The writing is on the wall. You'll end up seeing the whole season canceled,” said one Dutchess County baseball coach. "I mean, I don't want to alarm my players but people above us haven't even discussed with us yet the parameters of what happens if we do start playing on May 1."
Figuring out sectional qualifiers and seedings could become complicated and contentious if there are huge disparities in the number of games various schools across the section play.
• Section 11 has called off scrimmages and games until April 3, though some schools have put more stringent rules in place. Roosevelt High postponed sports until April 20, Patchogue-Medford until April 30 and Longwood until May 1. Lindenhurst has suspended all sports until further notice.
Section 8 has called a meeting for Monday morning to discuss how to proceed according to Executive Director Pat Pizzarelli.
• Section 2 Executive Director Ed Dopp announced that scrimmages and games were being postponed until April 19.
"We felt that it was the prudent thing to do to help minimize the potential to spread the virus and protecting our student-athletes and people in the community," Dopp said. "Rather than leave it up to the individual school districts, we wanted to level the playing field for all of our members by making a section-wide decision."
• In Section 3, all Oneida County public schools have been ordered closed through at least April 13 following the decision by County Executive Anthony Picente Jr. to declare a state of emergency.
• In Western New York, Buffalo Public Schools teams have called off games and scrimmages until further notice. The Monsignor Martin High School Athletic Association announced the cancellation of games and scrimmages for all its spring sports through March.
"Since we're in uncharted waters, we'll review it as we go along," MMHSAA Executive Director Pete Schneider said.
