The future of fall sports for high school athletes is still uncertain. Athletic directors, coaches and parents across the Capital Region are concerned particularly about their seniors who may be trying to play for a college scholarship.

What You Need To Know

  • NYSPHSAA set guidelines Monday that remote learners must be enrolled in at least three courses and physical education to play sports

  • The state has set a tentative, delayed start date of September 21 for fall athletics to begin

  • Local athletic directors, coaches and parents have a number of concerns that the season will get canceled, overlap in some cases and create issues particularly for seniors hoping to recruited to college athletic programs

"We're optimistic, we try to be, hopefully," said Paul Reinisch, athletic director at Troy High School.

Reinisch is feeling the weight so many parents are feeling right now, uncertain if their kids who've waited their whole lives to play a senior season, will get to.

"It affected my oldest son [Jake Reinisch], with his basketball season, he was on a Shenendehowa team that was preparing to play a regional game and then the season was delayed and eventually canceled, so he lost an opportunity to play in a state tournament," Reinisch said. "But as a baseball player, lost the entire season of his senior year."

Now the Reinisch family is waiting again. Daughter Sydney, a senior this year at Shen, is using her brothers' batting practice to prepare for a field hockey season she may not get.

"She's concerned because obviously she's invested an enormous amount of time and effort, and her college choice has been made, but she still wants to play," Reinisch said.

In Ballston Spa, the Dort family is having the same debacle. Cindy Dort's son Gregg, is also hoping he'll be recruited. He missed his spring lacrosse season, and is playing on all-star team this summer. While college lacrosse is his goal, he hopes to play football this fall, his senior year, and not have to make a choice between the two if fall sports get pushed to spring.

"It's a huge recruiting time, if that's the track you want to go, and if you've been working for that, so to miss out on a lot of those opportunities has been heartbreaking," said Cindy Dort. "If he can play at Stony Brook, that's his goal and he's been a couple of times but the coaches have said, 'We have to see you in person,' and there's no in-person opportunities right now."

These are concerns Reinisch and David Austin, who just joined Guilderland High School in July as their athletic director, share. Both ADs say they're going to do whatever they can to ensure kids get to play, but that the recruiting process may need to adjust to these unusual circumstances.

"You know, what does a shortened season gonna do to colleges being able to see them, being able to talk to them?" Austin said. "Everybody's going to have to be flexible. It's uncharted territory."

There are lots of other big issues still in play. Will there be a shortage of officials, if older officials opt not to work this year due to the pandemic? How will students social distance on buses to and from practices and games? And the possibility that some teams may not have deep benches if parents keep their kids home for remote learning and don't want them to participate in close contact sports. Austin and Reinisch say they're doing everything they can to prepare.

"That's the other piece of the return to school and the return to sports, under the current parameters, it's not as easy as some would think," Austin said.

"We do have some kids that are on the radar at some large schools and some medium schools and some smaller schools — all of which are significant — so yeah, we're concerned and we want them to have that opportunity. Because that film and those seasons are important," Reinisch said.

Right now, the state has set a tentative start day of September 21 for all fall athletics, which is subject to change.