TENTATIVE CHAMPIONSHIP DATES, LOCATIONS ANNOUNCED BY VPA

3 min read

By Ben Kaufmann
County Courier

Postseason play was an increasing likelihood as the winter sports season has gotten through its first couple of weeks with minimal cancellations and postponements, but there was no guarantee that teams would get to play for a championship until Friday morning when the Vermont Principals Association sent an email outlining tentative championship dates and sites for this shortened winter sports season.

All, of course, is pending the successful completion of the regular season. Outbreaks of COVID-19 within schools or teams still threaten to halt play at any moment, but the few scattered scares thus far are yet to cancel any one team’s season – let alone statewide play.

The championship schedule, like the rest of this unique season, is still very subject to change for any reason. The positive news is that Vermont expects to host playoffs, and schools throughout the state have shown a tremendous ability to adapt as needed.

Of note, the University of Vermont is not listed as a championship site. The school’s Gutterson fieldhouse has hosted Vermont’s Division I and II hockey championships in recent years and Patrick Gym has hosted Division I boys basketball championships since 1964 (with the lone exception of 2000, when the final was played at St. Michael’s) and the Division I girls since 2003. Barre Auditorium, which has long played host to Division II, III, and IV basketball championships, is listed as a basketball championship site.

This will be the first year since 1951 that the boys’ D1 final will be played at Barre and will mark a return for the Division I girls’ who played semifinal and final games at The Aud from 1975-1998. Both the semi-finals and finals are typically hosted at a neutral site, but this year that will just apply to the finals and the semifinal-round games will be hosted by the school with the better seed.

Hockey championships for boys and girls are slated for March 23-24, which is about two weeks later than usual. The same delay stands for basketball, with championship games scheduled for March 27-28. Most teams are playing fewer than 10 games thanks to a long delay to the start of the regular season while officials figured out how to safely play during a pandemic.

The full schedule with sites is listed below. Cheerleading, dance, and bowling have been competing virtually by recording performing/playing within the team and recording the routine or sending scores for competition. That trend will continue for championships. The VPA says as we get closer to the playoffs, more information will be released.