LHSAA sets expectations for 2021 prep football season

Published 12:00 am Saturday, August 21, 2021

BATON ROUGE — Schools that are unable to participate in scheduled games during the 2021 football season due to COVID-19 related issues must forfeit the match-up, the Louisiana High School Athletic Association announced in a memorandum issued this month.

Last year, games that could not move forward due to COVID-19 restrictions and contact tracing were ruled no-contest.

LHSAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine stated, “…the LHSAA is very confident in the capabilities of our membership, their coaches, medical personnel and their local epidemiologists after the 2019-2020 pandemic experience, to manage any COVID issues that may arise in 2021 and beyond within your athletic programs. But please know, unlike last year, we will not referee the alleged manipulation of COVID issue relief to facilitate avoidance of opponents for sport specific power ranking reasons.”

Similar protocols have been put in place for NFL and SEC games.

The high school football season begins the first week of September.

The schedules of each of the eight River Parish teams will be included in Wednesday’s edition of L’OBSERVATEUR, along with a season preview for each team.