CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Winter tournaments for high school sports have been cancelled.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association made the announcement Thursday afternoon.
Wrestling, basketball and ice hockey tournaments which were originally suspended earlier this month at the outset of the COVID-19 outbreak will not be completed.
Earlier Thursday, OHSAA executive director Jerry Snodgrass and his staff communicated with the schools that were still competing to announce the decision.
“We are just devastated that the tournaments cannot be completed,” Snodgrass said. “But our priority is the safety of our student-athletes, coaches, communities and officials. Governor Mike DeWine is asking all Ohioans to do everything they can to stop the spread of this virus. That request, along with our schools not being able to reopen for weeks, means that school sports cannot happen at this time. Even if our schools reopen this spring, it will be difficult to find facilities willing to host the tournaments. Most campus are shut down until mid to late summer.
“We are already planning for ways that these student-athletes will be honored at next year’s state tournament.”
The 16 schools that qualified for the girls basketball state tournament and the four teams that qualified for the ice hockey state tournament will all receive state tournament programs. The 672 student-athletes who qualified for the wrestling state tournament will all receive a program, certificate and their weigh-in card.
This year marks the first time, and only time since World War II (1941-45) that the OHSAA, which was founded in 1907, cancelled sporting events of any kind statewide.
No state champions will be listed for these four sports in 2020. The OHSAA does not use state polls from the media or coaches associations to determine state champions.
