River States Conference to play fall sports as scheduled

While most small-college conferences have taken a cautionary approach to fall sports by postponing the season until the spring, one area conference is staying the course.

The NAIA River States Conference will buck the trend and have a fall season, leaning on a crutch of guidelines and protocol to play on.

The league, which includes Point Park and Carlow, noted that it is an “ever-changing situation” with the virus, but for now, the plan is to green light fall competition with a close eye on safety and health.

“The conference has monitored the covid-19 situation continually since the cancellation of winter 2020 championships, as well as the suspension of the spring 2020 regular and postseason,” RSC commissioner Michael Schell said in a news release. “We believe the time is right to return to play this fall. We will continue to monitor the situation and take the necessary steps to adhere to all safety measures required by the NAIA, state and local governments within our five-state region comprising the conference.”

Team practices are scheduled to begin Aug. 15 for cross country, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s tennis and women’s volleyball.

Games cannot start until after Sept. 5.

Coaches, players, officials and staff will be screened before participation in any sport — and before making any road trips.

The RSC will not require covid-19 testing before the start of the fall season. The NAIA Council of Presidents recently decided to leave testing up to each conference.

If someone shows symptoms of covid-19 or appears ill, he or she will need clearance to return from a health care professional. The RSC is reserving the right to move regular season competitions or championships to the winter or spring if needed and is open to teams rescheduling events.

“Our conference and the NAIA take the safety and health of student-athletes very seriously and with the precautions that the conference has set forth, we feel very confident that we can provide our student-athletes with opportunity to participate in fall sports,” said Point Park athletic director John Ashaolu. “The mental health of our student-athletes is important and their participation in fall sports will provide a sense of normalcy for them.”

National championships in the NAIA for the fall have already been moved to the spring.

Member schools, the conference said, can decide whether to admit fans based on local and state guidelines.

Other local conferences have either moved fall sports to the spring altogether, or just the contact sports.

The AMCC voted to postpone conference competition in men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s cross country and men’s and women’s basketball to the spring. But the league will move ahead with men’s golf and women’s tennis in the fall given there are a minimum of four teams competing.

The Penn State University Athletic Conference, home to 14 Penn State branch campuses, announced postponed fall athletics — soccer, cross country, golf and women’s volleyball — while other sub-Division I conferences to postpone most fall sports include the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (Division II), and the Presidents Athletic Conference and the North Coast Athletic Conference, both Division III.

Individual schools in the region to postpone fall sports independently are Carnegie Mellon and Pitt-Greensburg.

River States Conference Fall Sports 2020 Update (Aug. 5): https://t.co/sUUUBea6mX #NAIA @NAIA #RSC pic.twitter.com/pJXVZdJNsS

— @RiverStatesConf (@RiverStatesConf) August 5, 2020