Mayflower league sitting out fall sports season

In a time of upheaval in high school sports, the Mayflower Athletic Conference is blazing its own trail – passing on the fall season entirely and delaying the winter season until January.

The MIAA's "four-season" plan, which added a Fall II campaign in a newly created February-to-April window, is radical enough, but the Mayflower has gone a step further by deviating from the MIAA's model to create its own new-look calendar.

That means five local schools – Avon, Blue Hills Regional (Canton), Holbrook, Southeastern Regional (Easton) and South Shore Tech (Hanover) – will go 10 months without hitting the fields, courts or ice. Last spring's season was wiped out by the coronavirus, and now the Mayflower not only has pushed all fall sports to Fall II but also pushed back the start of winter sports by more than a month.

Not ideal, but that's the COVID-19 reality for a 16-team league filled with regional/vocational schools and all the added challenges that come with that.

One of those 16 schools, West Bridgewater, has opted out of the league's plan and will play fall sports in the Southeast Conference. The remaining 15 schools will keep their sports teams idle for the entire fall season.

On the MIAA calendar, the winter season for this school year runs from Nov. 30 to Feb. 21; on the Mayflower calendar it goes from Jan. 4 to Feb. 24.

On the MIAA calendar, the Fall II season runs from Feb. 22 to April 25; on the Mayflower calendar it's March 10 to April 30.

On the MIAA calendar, the spring season runs from April 26 to July 3; on the Mayflower calendar it's May 5 to June 25.

"There's no right way, there's no wrong way" to approach the school year, Blue Hills AD Ed Catabia said. "We just felt that it was a better fit for us in the Mayflower league."

Catabia said the decision to postpone the fall campaign was a nod to league superintendents, some of whom did not want to allow sports to begin if their school was in a hybrid-learning model.

"We were trying to be considerate to our superintendents and what they had to do to get kids all back in school," Catabia said. "We just felt as a league that maybe we should take a step back and give them some breathing room ... so we're not trying to jam sports down their throats while they're trying to get kids back to school."

Mike Hernon, the first-year AD at South Shore Tech, agreed, saying, "For us, being in a hybrid situation, we're got kids in cohorts and we're trying to limit their exposure to their peers as much as possible throughout the day. In the cohort model they're in the same rooms academically and then they're together in their shop. If we're trying to limit exposure ... I think having some grace period to focus on (academics and vocational training) and limit the exposure out on the field certainly (makes sense). I agree with the decision."

Catabia noted that so many Mayflower student-athletes live far away from their school, making it difficult to get to sporting events or practices on days when they are not physically in school. Blue Hills, for example, draws kids from towns as far away as Milton, Dedham, Holbrook, Randolph, Braintree and Norwood. South Shore Tech draws from eight towns, including Rockland, Whitman, Hanson and Abington. Southeastern draws from nine communities, including Brockton, Sharon, Norton, Foxboro and Mansfield.

"We don't even get the kids' parents to come to our games (as fans)," Catabia said. "We're going to expect them to bring our kids back from hybrid learning for a practice? That's never going to happen."

Catabia said the Mayflower plan has the added benefit of building in down time between seasons, which isn't the case in the MIAA model. Catabia noted that the Mayflower calendar is more balanced with the winter, Fall II and spring seasons all at 52 days; the MIAA calendar seasons, in contrast, range from 84 days (winter) to 63 days (Fall II) to 69 days (spring).

There will be no MIAA playoffs for the fall season. If the MIAA decides to stage playoffs for any of the other three seasons, Catabia said the Mayflower can adjust its calendar so its teams are eligible for the postseason.

The league had to get the unique plan approved by the District 8 Athletic Committee. "The MIAA is aware of it and they're supporting it," Southeastern AD Dan Tripp said.

Mayflower league teams had strong showings last fall. In football, West Bridgewater was a Division 8 state finalist, and South Shore Tech was a Div. 8 South finalist and won the small-school state voke crown. In boys soccer, West Bridgewater was the No. 1 seed in the Div. 4 South playoffs, and South Shore Tech finished 15-4 in Div. 3. In girls soccer, Holbrook (16-2-1) and Southeastern (12-3) stood out, while in volleyball, South Shore Tech (14-9) won the state voke crown and Southeastern (17-3), Holbrook (15-7) and since-closed Sacred Heart (20-3) all found success.

Blunting that momentum by shutting everything down until January was not an easy call, Hernon acknowledged.

"I'm sure there's disappointment" among the student-athletes, he said. "They want to get out there and play as 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kids. But hopefully they can understand that we're looking out for the best interest of not only them but the whole community as well. It's certainly not like we're taking it away because we don't want them to play; we're taking it away because we want to be able to do it the right way and have our foundation in place to have a successful year without having to start and then pull back."