MACON, Ga. — The Bibb County School District in Macon suspended sports competitions indefinitely on Thursday for all six GHSA members including Central, Howard, Northeast, Rutland, Southwest, and Westside.
“Right now, we're stopping volleyball and we're stopping softball. Cross country hasn’t started yet, but we will be delaying all of our athletic competitions," says Bibb Athletic Director Barney Hester.
The decision to pause softball, volleyball, and cross country while delaying the start of football was made after Bibb Superintendent Curtis Jones announced schools would begin September 8th with virtual-only learning through October, putting the brakes on the fall sports schedule.
“When Dr. Jones makes a decision, I don’t have any doubt about his decision-making ability,” says Hester, “So if he thinks it's best for our children to come back virtually and he thinks it's best for our extracurricular activities to delay, then that’s what we’re going to do.”
Hester notes that teams may continue to practice even though games are not allowed. However, they could revisit the decision, lifting the sports stoppage at any time well before the 8 weeks are up, placing emphasis on the improvement of cases in the community outside of school campuses.
“We have not put a time frame on how long the delay will be. It will be determined by the same way Dr. Jones determined we would go to school virtually," explains Hester. “I think he will look at the data and determine if we are able to have competitions again or continue extracurricular activities.”
Bibb will begin virtual learning on September 8th through October 30th before evaluating further.