This Week In #SocialDistancing: An update on what's going on at NHHSSports

(Updated March 31) The NHIAA announced that it is pushing back the start of the spring sports season to correspond with the extension of online learning in the state.

Practices are now scheduled to begin on May 4, with games beginning May 13. No announcement was made in regards to the postseason and all dates are subject to change.

(Original post)

It might sound kind of weird, but this time of social distancing and talk of flattening the curve feels a lot to me like a lightning delay.

You know how that works, right? You see a lightning strike at an outdoor sporting event and it gets delayed for a half an hour. Each new lightning strike restarts that 30-minute clock.

Eventually, you hit a point where those in charge decide the wait is going to be too long and everyone comes back another day. Unless you're at the 2012 Shrine Bowl and the weather comes through at halftime and the delay ends up being two hours or so. That was a fun time.

Unlike a thunderstorm, the threat we're dealing with from COVID-19 isn't something you can look at a radar and have some kind of idea when it's going to pass.

Like some of you, I was keeping up on what was happening with this new virus in other parts of the world, and eventually, the country. But like a lot of national or world news, it felt like something that was going on somewhere else, until all of a sudden, it wasn't.

Three weeks ago, I pulled up to Hollis Brookline High School for a playoff basketball game, only to find that it had been postponed to the following night because of the possibility of someone in the school distract having been exposed to COVID-19. Covering that game, and then two more the following night, there was a weird feeling in the air, like a Nor'easter was coming and no one expected to have school the next day.

What actually happened was the beginning of the end of the winter season. Games were postponed from Thursday to Friday to indefinitely to off completely. Spring sports were pushed back from the original start date of March 23 to April 13, and now, they'll start even later, if at all.

On Monday, the MIAA came up with a plan for its spring sports, subject to change again, of course.

I'm hoping, and I know many of you are, too, that the NHIAA is able to put together a similar plan, keeping the door open on having some kind of abbreviated spring season.

Over here, my plan is to continue on like we're getting ready for a normal spring ... or at least, to do that as much as I can.

Obviously, there won't be any game coverage until there are actually games. But over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to carry on like there's a spring season coming up, which means a good amount of lacrosse coverage.

This weekend, I sent out a whole lot of emails to boys and girls lacrosse coaches, asking for whatever preview information they could pass along. (FYI, if you're a coach and didn't get an email, it means I may not have yours. Send me one at nhhighschoolsports@gmail.com.)

Those previews will start running April 10, the weekend before the regular season was originally scheduled to start. I'll also have my boys and girls lacrosse preseason watch lists, recognizing players who I was expecting to have a big 2020 season.

Last week, Chris Hettler and I recorded our first lacrosse podcast of the spring, and our plan is to keep recording and posting them on Thursdays throughout the spring. I may even try to add another non-lacrosse podcast each week to give you something else to keep your mind on sports.

I'm also planning to reach out to a few seniors to do some of the feature stories I would be working on right now if the world was normal. Those stories, and the previews and watch lists, will still go into the preview magazine, which will be ready a little closer to the end of April; you can reserve a copy by signing up for a lacrosse membership.

Like a lightning delay, or the 2020 spring sports season, it's all subject to change. Whatever those changes may be, I'll do my best to keep this a place you can come to get a reprieve from the real world.