By CLAIRE CRUZ, Staff Writer
The Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools held a fall planning webinar Friday and released an updated schedule for fall and winter sports.
TAPPS executive director Bryan Bunselmeyer said fall seasons are being truncated and delayed five weeks, pushing the start date for football, volleyball and cross country to Sept. 8. St. Joseph Academy athletic director and football coach Tino Villarreal lauded TAPPS for providing a well-thought-out plan for its athletic programs.
“With all of this uncertainty and how these things change daily, I was very pleased to see TAPPS put dates on a calendar. It’s the first glimmer of hope,” Villarreal said. “It gives us something concrete, and it’s going to give kids extra motivation to prepare on their own. We just have to do a great job at keeping the kids focused at home and gearing them to be in condition to get here and hit the ground running.”
SJA and other private religious schools received more breaking news later Friday when Texas attorney general Ken Paxton issued a guidance letter stating they “need not comply with local public health orders” and the schools can “continue to determine when it is safe for their communities to resume in-person instruction free from any government mandate or interference.”
Villarreal said SJA is set to begin online classes Aug. 31 and face-to-face instruction Sept. 9, and did not have any updates for its current school year plans as of Friday.
The Bloodhounds can start football strength and conditioning Sept. 8, and full pads will be allowed starting Sept. 15. TAPPS football teams will only be allowed one scrimmage to be played the week of Sept. 21, with games beginning the week of Sept. 28. The new dates do create a challenge for SJA and the rest of its eight-team district.
“For us at St. Joe, what it does is eliminate a district game. We have seven district games, so it’s tough,” Villarreal said. “We’re going to have a district meeting on Monday and we’re going to try and retool our own calendar, because we had a bye week scheduled in there, so we may try to eliminate that bye week so we fulfill all of our district games.”
TAPPS volleyball, cross country, team tennis, golf and swimming programs can begin practices and scrimmages the week of Sept. 14 and games the week of Sept. 21. The delayed start dates create an issue for the SJA volleyball team.
“We were supposed to start district on Sept. 15. I don’t know if (on Sept. 21 we’ll be playing) what was supposed to be the first match, or whatever we had scheduled for that day, which would mean we’d be short two district matches,” Lady Bloodhounds coach Dolores Olguin-Trevino said.
Olguin-Trevino is hoping to receive guidance on district scheduling soon but feels confident that whatever happens, her girls will be ready. She said her athletes, especially seniors, have been texting her constantly asking about when they’ll return to the gym.
The updated schedule won’t allow for any tournaments or many warmup matches, if any, to shake off the rust before district play. Olguin-Trevino said the Lady Bloodhounds likely will carry a smaller varsity roster due to the lack of time to develop incoming players, and the seven returning letterwinners will jump right in to focusing on offensive and defensive strategies.
“I’m just thankful that we’ll be able to play,” Olguin-Trevino said. “I’ve already told the kids we really aren’t going to have the time we’d normally have to work up to district. We’re jumping right in, and that’s why it’s so important for them to do the extra stuff on their own. They’re willing to go the extra mile to improve and be ready, so I know that’s a big plus.”
Winter sports — including basketball and soccer — have been pushed back two weeks. Practices can begin Nov. 2, scrimmages Nov. 9 and games can be played starting Nov. 12. SJA boys basketball coach Sam Lucio isn’t concerned with the delay, because his athletes play multiple sports and the football players don’t typically join basketball until mid-November.
“We have been used to getting our team ready from a quick turnaround from football to basketball. I have a lot of players that have been in our program for two or three years, so they know our system very well. I have all the confidence that our student athletes will be ready to perform,” Lucio said.
TAPPS is letting schools decide whether to allow fans at sporting events. Villarreal said based on the current state of Cameron County, SJA is prepared to broadcast its games. Canales Field and SJA gyms are equipped with the bandwidth necessary to livestream events.
With a new TAPPS schedule now set, it’s being reported that the UIL will soon follow suit. But regardless of any new plans, Villarreal said the main priority needs to be stopping the spread of COVID-19 to ensure sports seasons happen.
“Having a calendar is one thing, and having a plan … but there’s still a lot of obstacles along the way,” Villarreal said. “We need to educate families on the importance of wearing face shields and the importance of social distancing and essential travel. If we really want to have a season, well, this was Step 1 of many, and the next steps are on us.”