Horry County high school athletes ready to retake the field with new Covid-19 guidelines

Horry County Schools will resume training and conditioning for fall sports on Monday, with new guidelines in place.

For area schools preparing to play traditional fall team sports like football and volleyball, social distancing will again be a requirement for participation, with a renewed focus on safety and additional participants allowed to work out.

“Student-athletes will be divided into ‘pods’ of no more than 15 athletes and one coach per session,” said Lisa Bourcier, Director of Strategic Communications & Community Engagement for Horry County Schools. “Athletes will be required to bring their own water bottles, remain (6) feet apart from other participants, and wear a face-covering when not actively involved in the session.”

When summer practice was first allowed in June, only 10 athletes could participate in a training session and no shared equipment was permitted.

Now, shared equipment is allowed for Horry County athletes, with sanitizing after each participant’s use. The move allows for more structured practices with balls for each sport, creating more of a traditional summer practice with installation of offenses and defenses for coaching staffs.

“Even though the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 continues to rise in Horry County, we believe we can safely resume conditioning and training for our athletics by following these protocols,” Bourcier said.

While the individual districts are allowed to make their own plans for returning to practice, the South Carolina High School League has jurisdiction over what activities can happen in those sessions and which phase of the return to play protocol is in play. Currently, fall sports are nearing Phase 1.5, which has the increased flexibility referenced by Bourcier, while winter and spring sports would remain in Phase 1 with fewer participants for training.

Monday’s reopening of conditioning and training allows for a two-week window before full practices can begin, as the SCHSL set the first day of practice as Aug. 17, with the ability to adjust that date as needed should another shutdown of activity occur.

Fall sports schedules have already been pushed back to at least Sept. 11 for football games, with the season starting in region play.

The SCHSL is expected to announce on Thursday a formal move to Phase 1.5 during or after its 2 p.m. Facebook Live event.

This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 2:17 PM.