High school sports get green light to proceed for fall

The Montana High School Association on Monday released its guidelines for fall sports in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — freeing Jefferson High School teams to start practices as planned in August. 

Currently, the state is under Tier 1, which calls for fall sports practices to begin on the scheduled dates, and for schools to adhere to all the state and local directives with regards to fan attendance, enforcing mask requirements, sanitizing and travel, according to the MHSA. The other four tiers, 2-5, employ varying degrees of season starts and interruptions. 

The MHSA advised, however, that music programs be restricted in the schools and the all-state band, choir and orchestra music festival in October has been cancelled.