Alabama Gov. Kay Ivy made the announcement Thursday afternoon that schools will be closed for the remainder of the school year. With that comes the realization that there will be no more high school sporting events in the state for this year's seniors.
Steve Savarese, the executive director of the Alabama High School Athletic Association, made the following statement about the decision.
Like thousands of others, I am deeply saddened and disappointed that our schools have closed, and spring sports will not have an opportunity to finish their seasons. Even more so, I am disheartened for all student-athletes, contest officials, their coaches, families, student bodies, fans, communities, and especially our seniors. We are facing an unprecedented health crisis, but I am prayerful that the steps we are taking now within our schools and across our nation will enable all those affected to return to a sense of normalcy sooner than later.
I’m extremely grateful to all our educators who will utilize telecommunications and other ingenious methods to continue to educate our students as well as keep our student-athletes conditioned.
Moreover, I’m grateful to all those within our medical communities who are serving those in need. In particular, now more than ever, I am thankful for the leadership of the AHSAA medical advisory board and Central Board of Control.
Lastly, all the steps we are taking now will be for naught if we each fail to do our part, and our responsibility is to follow the recommendations of our health care professionals. My prayer is that we will all take seriously the Alabama Department of Public Health guidelines so our families can once again return to work, visit loved ones in the hospital and nursing homes, celebrate birthdays, weddings, and births of children, visit and hold our grandchildren, shop, travel and just enjoy the simple things of everyday life we often take for granted. Until those guidelines are lifted, we must heed these cautions thus not allowing this health issue to affect future school years.
God Bless
SS