The Nebraska Schools Activities Association says that there will be no changes made to Class A scheduling for fall sports following the announcement Friday that Omaha Public Schools will suspend all sports competition during the first quarter of the 2020 school year. The first quarter will conclude in mid October. OPS superintendent Cheryl Logan announced that, because of COVID-19, Omaha Public Schools would be using remote learning for the opening quarter of the year and that there would be no sports or activities in the district while remote learning is in place. NSAA executive director Jay Bellar told the Omaha World Herald “We are going to hold steady. I don’t know that we could say we planned for this because I didn’t think (the OPS decision) was going to be for nine weeks. I was planning on a late start (from OPS) more than anything.”
The earliest OPS will have in-person instruction is the first day of the second quarter Oct. 19 which is the final week of the regular season in Class A football. In football, the OPS decision wiped out 44 games with opponents from outside the district. Lincoln Southwest is in the worst spot, losing four of its nine games. Seven schools are short three games apiece. Bellar said Nate Neuhaus of the NSAA, who oversees football, is assisting schools that are losing games to pair them up for “replacement games.” Those games won’t count toward postseason qualifying points. Because it takes more than a month to draw up statewide schedules, Bellar said, “How can we get that done in a short amount of time now?” Bellar said he feels deeply for the athletes in the Omaha Public Schools system but said the NSAA made the decision that if it’s not the same in all communities that they would do their best to try to continue on and at this point in time that’s what they are trying to do.
Fall sports workouts statewide are to begin Monday.
