CHAPEL HILL — The start of high school fall sports in North Carolina has been delayed until at least Sept. 1, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association announced Wednesday.

The NCHSAA Board of Directors approved the delay of the fall sports season, along with making the first five student days of the school year to be a “dead period” and allowing limited workouts far as conditioning for the time being.

The Public Schools of Robeson County have not returned to workouts, after indefinitely postponing workouts earlier this month.

Jerome Hunt, athletic director for PSRC, said that there is no set return date for athletic workouts.

Currently, the first day of school in Robeson County is Aug. 17.

“For now, we believe these steps provide hope for our student athletes, and the possibility for playing fall sports,” Commissioner Que Tucker said. “We know that many decisions are being made relative to the reopening plan your school(s) will follow. After each LEA has had an opportunity to formalize and finalize those reopening plans, the NCHSAA Staff will survey the membership to determine how sports should and/or can fit into the various models that will exist across the state. Please understand this delayed start date is not “in cement” and can be delayed even further if we do not have improved data from DHHS, or some other reason exists for delaying further into September or beyond.”

In the past, the first contest date is typically two weeks after the first date of practice for fall sports like cross country, boys soccer, girls tennis and volleyball, while football’s first date of scrimmage is 10 days after the first practice and the first game is around three weeks after the start of practice.

Based on this timing, if the start date is Sept. 1, football could have a Sept. 25 start date for games, while the rest of the fall sports could start around the middle of the month.

NCHSAA member schools haven’t played a contest since March 13, when the association put in a dead period at midnight that lasted until June 15. The association then gave local educational agencies the choice to allow for workouts to resume starting then.

According to HighSchoolOT.com, more than half of the LEAs across the state returned to workouts at one point this summer.