Bibb County high school athletics on hold until further notice
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
The COVID-19 crises has been about unpredictability and perhaps some increasing inevitability.
The latter has hit Bibb County, as it has other counties and school systems throughout the state, and will continue to hit.
Bibb County Schools announced Thursday evening that varsity athletics – along with extracurricular activities – have been suspended until further notice.
The system announced that the school year will begin virtually on Sept. 8, and remain that way for at least the first quarter of the school year, until about the end of October.
Starting the year virtually, Bibb County athletics director Barney Hester said, led to the decision, which will be regularly revisited.
“We are delaying all athletics competition until further notice,” Hester said. “There’ll be further information forthcoming. But right now, we have delayed all athletics competition, all extracurricular activities, in Bibb County until further notice.”
Hester noted Bibb County’s general COVID-19 stats, and that those figures led to the board’s decision to start school virtually. In July, the plan was to make the decision about virtual or in-person classes to start roughly two weeks before the first day.
Bibb County’s positivity rate of nine percent was above the recommended five percent, superintendent Dr. Curtis Jones said in the virtual meeting Thursday.
The county qualifies as being in a “substantial spread.” In one recent two-week span, there were 430 positive tests per 100,000 people, a decrease of 40 percent than the previous two weeks but still, Jones said, four times higher than what was needed to be out of the significant category.
“It’s just not safe for the students to come back,” Hester said.
Hester knows it was a difficult decision for Jones, who has a strong athletics background, having been a standout athlete at Griffin and football player at West Point. Jones has attended more athletic events since arriving than any Bibb County superintendent in a very long time.
“We owe it to our athletes, especially our seniors, to give them an opportunity to show what they can do and compete,” Jones said in the meeting “They’ve been working hard to get ready for the season. So,we do not want to cancel the season.
“We also want to make sure it’s safe when they go back. They have been practicing in many ways, in small groups, cohort groups, and we’ve done a pretty good job of maintaining safety.
“But at this point, when we’re ready to go into full competition, especially in football, the statement is that we’re not at that point yet.”
The GHSA softball, volleyball and cross country seasons have started, and football is scheduled to begin play on Sept. 4. Football start was pushed back two weeks back in July, but the starts for softball and volleyball remained on time.
It’s expected that the GHSA will be another announcement on football in the next week, and a long-discussed speculative option has been pushing the start back to October.
Hester said the county teams will take a break, but continue with practices schedules. He hopes as time goes on that the situation can be reviewed every few weeks, and plans for teams to be prepared to return to competition.
“I really think it will be revisited as the spread diminishes,” Hester said. “It’ll be revisited and we’ll be able to continue trying to get our teams ready to play when we’re able to.”
Hester confirmed that Bibb County high school athletics teams have followed guidelines as well as could have been hoped for, although he didn’t have any specific numbers.
“We have been very blessed in Bibb County,” Hester said. “Our kids have been working out since June 8, when we were allowed to go back. Our kids have done well, our coaches have done well.
“But there comes a time when you have to make a decision on what’s best for everyone. … We’re in this business for children, bottom line. That’s what we do.”