HAYS - More than a month after the MIAA announced the suspension of fall sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic, three of the conference’s schools have announced they are moving forward with a partial 2020 football schedule beginning in late October.
Despite the move by Pittsburg State, Missouri Western State and Nebraska-Kearney to play games this fall, Fort Hays State has no such plans.
“We felt like that was going against what we had originally voted on.” said FHSU athletic director Curtis Hammeke. “We made our plans and our practice structures with the idea of not playing any games this fall, so we’re going to stick to that.”
The move by the three schools to play comes after last Thursday’s 10-2 vote by the MIAA athletic directors to move forward with a four-game fall schedule. The motion did not gain approval from the conference’s presidents who had a 5-5 split on the vote with two of the league’s presidents abstaining.
Pittsburg State, Missouri Western State and Nebraska-Kearney will each play two games against one another while filling out the remainder of the schedules with other NCAA II and NCAA I FCS institutions.
And while there’s technically nothing wrong with conference schools scheduling games, Hammeke senses some frustration amongst the other MIAA members.
“I do believe the intent of that action was for no one to participate against outside competition this fall for a number of reasons in terms of safety with their student athletes.” Hammeke said. “Fort Hays has chosen not to go against that, feeling like it’s the ethical thing to do, but I do think there is a sense of frustration.”
“I think we’ll probably see some others maybe try to put themselves in a position to play games this fall, we just aren’t going to follow along in that path. I don’t think it makes sense.” Hammeke added. “We’re going to hold to our plans that we had in place and hopefully have a sense of gratitude for how much we are able to do right now rather than focus on what we’re not getting to do.”
FHSU head football coach Chris Brown agrees with Hammeke’s decision to no play this fall.
“When we heard that the season was canceled and there would be no fall competition, we set a plan for our kids to make sure they were healthy and safe and ready to actually play a true football game and I just don’t think we’re there yet.” Brown said. “We moved things a little bit slower than we normally do during the fall, but that’s because we didn’t really do much through the spring and through the summer. We’ve had a plan set since this all happened and we’re going to stay to that plan and make sure our kids are ready to play when that time comes.”
Discussions are ongoing for MIAA spring volleyball and soccer schedules. Brown said football will likely have three or four playing dates in the spring that will be either games or scrimmages against outside competition.