The non-conference portion of North Dakota Class A fall athletics took a hit Wednesday amid concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.
The Western Dakota Association announced the league will not play schools from the Eastern Dakota Conference during the regular season in fall sports.
The news was released by the WDA, but the EDC was scheduled to meet later in the day Wednesday and was operating under these schedule alterations.
"It's all about risk mitigation," Grand Forks athletic director Mark Rerick said. "Obviously, we're all passionate about youth sports and their place in the educational system, and the wonderful life lessons they teach kids ... but we're also very aware of the present risk."
Football, boys soccer, girls golf, cross country, boys tennis, volleyball and girls swimming and diving are the affected sports. The postseason tournaments are still on as scheduled for now.
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"What we're trying to do is compete in the safest manner possible," Rerick said.
Rerick said athletic directors have a more difficult task at the return to sport than summer counterparts. In the summer, teams are often isolated to 10-15 players and spend much of their time in that small number. Rerick pointed out, these athletes set to compete in the fall might be interacting in a school building with 1,000 other kids.
With that risk in mind, Rerick said the line of thinking is that the fewer kids you're interacting with, the higher the likelihood of preventing outbreaks.
Rerick said the EDC will be looking at trimming down the size of swimming and cross country invitationals, as well as shotgun starts for golf and eliminating award ceremonies.
"Anything we can do to reduce the number of times groups stand together," Rerick said. "All of our efforts are going toward the ability to participate. Keeping things regionally is the cost of doing business this year."
Another issue EDC athletic directors will be looking to address late this summer is the question of co-ops involving Minnesota athletes, which could be impacted by the yet-to-be-announced Minnesota prep athletics plan.
Grand Forks co-ops with East Grand Forks Senior High in swimming and has a few other co-ops with East Grand Forks Sacred Heart.
