Tuesday 10/27 3:00pm: The Virginia High School League (VHSL) has put a hold on sanctioning of any and all athletic events for the state of Virginia for the 2020-21 school year.
This was the statement provided to athletic directors and school administrators:
School Advisory - ATTENTION: principals and athletic/activities directors -
Sanctioning for 2020-2021 put on hold
All VHSL sanctions are currently on hold. Unless there is a significant change in the state with the COVID-19 virus, VHSL staff will not sanction any events for the 2020-2021 school year. There will be no sanctioning of events in which teams from out-of-state are involved. We will notify principals and activities directors immediately if conditions change or if staff changes its position.
What this means is that the VHSL and its member schools will not be allowed to compete in the following type of meets representing their team/school
- Meets with out-of-state teams
- Meets with 5 or more schools
- Meets hosted by anyone but a member school
Their sanctioning rule does NOT apply to intra-district or intra-school division (i.e. county/city) competition.
This move comes just as other states such as Maryland are opening up the chances to compete on a county by county decision. There will also likely be more club competitions similarly to what the Fall XC season has seen following this move.
