Vermont high school sports to begin competition Saturday

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WFFF) — On Tuesday, Vermont officials announced that schools will advance to Step III on Saturday, giving sports the go-ahead to compete. High school athletic teams have been practicing since September 8, which was the first day of in-person instruction around Vermont.

Vermont's Secretary of Education, Dan French, said in Tuesday's press conference, "We wanted to give our student-athletes an extra weekend for what has already been a shortened season. This is particularly important for student-athletes participating in activities with a shortened season such as bass fishing and golf."

French noted that the decision to move to Step III is based on COVID-19 numbers and how schools have fared since opening. There's only been a few cases inside Vermont schools, he says: "The cases we have seen in schools are essentially the result of the virus being brought to school. To date, we have not seen transmission of the virus in schools."

Seven-on-seven football around Vermont was scheduled to begin on Friday. Any teams who were scheduled to play Friday night will have to reschedule or move games to Saturday.

County-by-county Coronavirus Tracker
COVID-19 Resources
Reopening New York
More Coronavirus Coverage from News10

LATEST STORIES

• President Trump, GOP AGs accuse social media companies of silencing conservatives
• 2 officers shot in Louisville during protests, expected to recover
• Male struck in torso in First Street shooting
• Pedestrian struck by pickup truck in Delmar crash
• Trump won't commit to peaceful transfer of power if he loses