Katy ISD student-athletes returned to strength and conditioning camps and sport-specific instruction the morning of July 13 after being barred from in-person workouts since June 24 due to rising …
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Katy ISD student-athletes returned to strength and conditioning camps and sport-specific instruction the morning of July 13 after being barred from in-person workouts since June 24 due to rising COVID-19 cases.
The original plan was to resume on July 6, but the University Interscholastic League suggested its member schools close camps leading up to the Independence Day holiday and kept student-athletes out of workouts until earlier this week.
The UIL also released updated guidelines ahead of schools returning that were installed on Monday including a mask mandate for all non-participants and coaches. The new guidelines also allowed for group workouts to occur with more than one player on offense and more than one player on defense with time winding down before the scheduled start of fall sports practices on Aug. 3.
That beginning of fall sports practices could still change as other states have already pushed back the start date but the UIL has said in a previous statement that it is planning on starting fall sports on time. In New Mexico, it was already announced the high school fall contact sports of football and soccer will be played in the spring.
Katy ISD also released its return-to-school plan on Monday which features an in-person and virtual option but student-athletes will be able to participate in extracurricular activities regardless of their choice.
However, if a student-athlete chooses the online option, they would only be able to participate in their sport before the start or after the school day ends whereas the students choosing in-person instruction can participate in their athletic period during the school day.
Nearby Fort Bend ISD announced its return-to-school plan will be 100% online and there will be no extracurricular activities until in-person instruction resumes. Ryan Dunsmore with the Fort Bend Herald reported from Monday’s board meeting that Fort Bend ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre didn’t say when an in-person option could be coming.
“Right now, the TEA tells us we can ask parents to commit to a six-week period of staying with whatever their choice was, online or (face-to-face,)” Dupre said. “We’re thinking definitely will have to be a full grading period, nine weeks in Fort Bend at a minimum. It may be a full semester.”
Katy’s lone 5A school, Paetow, is in District 10 with four schools in Fort Bend County. The Panthers are scheduled to play Foster and Fort Bend Kempner in consecutive weeks in September and Terry and Fort Bend Hightower in back-to-back weeks in October.
Fort Bend was the most recent county where schools will delay their extracurricular involvement after El Paso and Laredo Counties announced its schools would not be starting fall sports practices on time.