Building off Governor Roy Cooper's announcement today the NCHSAA announced all spring sports in North Carolina will be cancelled as well as the remaining winter championships that did not finish. This builds off yesterdays extended stay-at-home order through May 8th.
Sadly this means there will be no outdoor track for middle and high schools in North Carolina this season. The NCHSAA held off as long as they could with this announcement as we are one of the last states to fully cancel the seasons. It's great to see that they held onto hope that athletes could get some sort of a outdoor track or spring sport season even with the delay due to COVID-19.
The NCHSAA said in a statement, "Today's decision is difficult for the NCHSAA Board of Directors and Staff. We empathize with the thousands of student-athletes, especially graduating seniors, coaching staff, officials and family members affected by this decision," said NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker. "However, this decision reflects a commitment to keeping our student-athletes, officials and member schools' staffs and their communities safe, while following the guidelines provided by the Governor and his team, along with the Department of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education."
They also said they had hoped to finish off the State Basketball Championships, which were postponed the week of the state finals and for a modified spring sport season.
The NCHSAA Board will meet next week to discuss the policies for summer activities and address academic eligibility concerns for Fall 2020.
We now can hope for 2020 Cross Country to begin on time.
This will be the first time since 1913 that the NCHSAA Outdoor Track & Field State Championships were not held.