Kentucky 2A Championships to delay start of fall sports to next year
OWENSBORO, Ky. (BVM) — Some of the most anticipated sports tournaments for small Kentucky high schools have been postponed. In a social media post on July 30, the Kentucky 2A Championships announced that it will delay the start of its fall sports tournaments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally, the organization was going to host both a volleyball and soccer tournament this year, but they will now occur in the fall of 2021 following the organization’s basketball, baseball and softball tournaments earlier in the year.
“After several hours of conversation we have made the decision to delay the start of the Kentucky 2A Championships fall sports,” the post read. “Our initial plan was to begin with basketball, then phase into baseball and softball, and finally to soccer and volleyball. With the cancellation of the spring season, and the delayed started to fall our board decided in the best interest of athletes and fans to begin with baseball & softball this spring after the basketball championships. Then begin soccer and volleyball in the fall of 2021.”
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The Kentucky 2A Championships were originally created in 2018 as a mid-season basketball tournament for some of the commonwealth’s smaller schools that were not among the 120 schools selected in the state’s well-known “All A Classic” tournament. Created in a similar vein, the Kentucky 2A Championships would be an invitational tournament for schools too large to receive a bid to the All A, but still did not have a population exceeding 1,000 students.
Though all participating schools are members of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, the tournament, like the All A, would not be affiliated with the KHSAA and did not have any implications on regional or state championships.
The first basketball tournament took place in Jan. 2019 at the Owensboro Sportscenter and, due to its success, the organization decided to expand its sports tournament offerings into volleyball, soccer, baseball and softball which was planned to begin this year. However due to COVID-19, the spring baseball and softball tournaments had been canceled and now, with the virus still rampant, the fall tournaments will not take place this year either.
Instead, the organization will proceed with its basketball tournament as planned and will instead roll into its inaugural spring tournaments for baseball and softball before hosting their volleyball and soccer tournaments next year.
The organization currently has 40 member schools from eight different sections across the state. Among the schools are last year’s Kentucky 2A Championships boys basketball champions John Hardin High School and girls basketball champions Christian Academy-Louisville.
With the postponement of its tournaments, the Kentucky 2A Championships are another addition to a number of unique sports competitions and events being canceled or delayed throughout the state and the country due to the COVID-19 virus. Although the opportunity to play in a different environment is lost for student-athletes from smaller Kentucky schools, the decision is not a surprising one considering the unpredictability of the virus into the future.
