Website Manager

Amherst Jr. Comets

News Detail

27

Jul, 2020

2020 Fall Season - Suspended


As you may have heard, the Lake Erie Youth Football League held an emergency meeting on Friday, July 17th. The meeting was called to discuss and vote on moving the 2020 season to Spring of 2021. Up until that point, there was no discussion of not having a season, so we prepared to be ready for Acclimation Week. We knew that if we were going to be ready, we needed to stick to our timeline while hoping the NFHS and OSHAA would deliver guidelines for “Return to Play” for contact sports, specifically Football. That did not happen and in some ways, has not happened yet because as I type this, Ohio does not know if the High School season will be played this fall or not. After review of the guidelines and discussion of requirements/recommendations, there was a vote. The 13 organizations voted on moving the season to spring, with that passing 11-2. Amherst was one of the two to vote for Fall Football. The work the Jr Comet Board, volunteer coaches and you parents did over these last 6 months had us ready for Fall. While I do not agree with the timing of the voting, I will support the League’s decision. When you look at the current requirements for return to play, I’m not 100% sure we could meet all those requirements and that would mean putting children at risk and that is not something I am willing to do. 
On Saturday, July 26th the Jr Comet Board met to discuss next steps. We looked at all options on the table from canceling all Fall plans, passing on the Spring option and just focusing on Fall 2021 to seeing if there was any way we could do something in-house this Fall just to keep the kids active and with teammates. On July 22nd, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued an order allowing Contact and Non-Contact sports to resume this fall ONLY if specific guidelines were followed. Included in those guidelines were:
- COVID Testing for all players, coaches and team volunteers before and after games
- Log of all spectators with time stamp of entry and exit for infection tracing
Those two alone were enough to make us look at even if we were allowed to, can we even accomplish having a season? The rest of the guidelines can be found on the NFHS and OSHAA websites. 
With all of that in mind, the Jr Comet Board voted unanimously to move all Fall 2020 plans to the Spring of 2021 with the LEYFL with an expected Acclimation Week of March 14th. That is daylight savings and will allow us to practice a little later in the evenings. The season timeline will remain the same as if we were to play in the Fall with a 3 week practice buffer before a 7 week season starts. Now that is not set in stone and as soon as we get any updates, we will share them, I promise. 
If you are wanting to stay on for Spring, awesome! Hang on to your equipment you received at fitting day and we will get you your game uniform and practice pack as soon as it comes in (which should be within a couple weeks). We are working on a way to get everyone “registered” for the Spring 2021 and when that is ready, we will let you know. 
If Spring 2021 isn’t going to work for you, we completely understand. I know how many baseball players we have in our program and how many baseball coaches we have coaching our football teams too. I am already in discussion with some other communities and baseball organizations about what is happening with basically all of Lorain County youth football and they understand. 
If you would like to opt out of the 2021 Spring season, you would receive the following:
- Game Jersey
- Practice Packs (3rd thru 6th only)
- Game Shorts (K-2 only)
- Five Comet Cards to sell and you keep the money
- Pro-rated refund ($63 for K-2, $50 for 3-6th)
***You have until October 1st to opt out of Spring 2021. If we do not hear from you, we will assume you are in for Spring and will not be issued the refund.***
To the players, I’m sorry this has happened to you. But I promise you that myself and the volunteers that help me with this program will continue to do everything we can to offer you the best youth football program around and I really hope we can have a somewhat “normal” season this Spring. 
As always, if you have any questions please reach out to us via Facebook Messenger or our email. 
Thanks,
Phil Vedda
President
AJC

Contact

Amherst Jr. Comets

 
Amherst, Ohio 44001

Email: [email protected]

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