Winter sports are on track to return after fall sports were cancelled by the South Coast Conference, but guidelines for winter sports are still “very much up in the air,” according to Old Rochester Regional School District Athletic Director Bill Tilden. 

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletics Association likely won’t hold its winter sectional and state championships this winter after its Tournament Management Committee voted to recommend their cancellation. 

But Tilden said the decision wasn’t out of left field. 

“I guess there’s no surprise,” he said.

Earlier this fall, athletes from ORR participated in a small protest at Wareham Crossing in an effort to get their fall seasons back. Many of the athletes were seniors who had lost their final season of competition after the South Coast Conference cancelled fall sports. 

“We’re just happy for an opportunity to compete,” Tilden said.

The recommendation will affect basketball, indoor track and field, ice hockey, and swimming. 

Tilden said that athletes’ seasons might also be pushed back in order to hold more preseason practices. 

“It’s just beneficial to get the kids in some sort of shape before the season starts,” Tilden said.

Tilden said sports will be a “whole new ball game” with potential rules like mask wearing. The regulations have yet to be released.

We might not even see the rules up until a week before the season starts,” Tilden said. 

Tilden said the department is still trying to figure out the logistics of practice when gyms are only allowed to have 25 people each. 

He said that’s not enough space to fit both the track and field and basketball teams. 

Tilden also said that he was unsure of how, or if, intramurals would be able to work in the winter. 

“We haven’t figured out the inside parameters,” Tilden said. “I think we’re still in the waiting game,” he added.