The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the state's governing body for high school sports, announced Sunday night that teams were permitted to resume their conditioning regimens as of Monday, what CIAC executive director Glenn Lungarini called a "very positive outcome."

But Monday brought reaction on several fronts as it pertains to Connecticut's fall sports plan.

First, the CIAC announced in its press release Sunday that any sports not played this fall will not be played at a later time during the 2020-21 school year.

Second, the Connecticut Department of Public Health, with which the CIAC has been working closely to try to find the best possible outcome for fall high school sports in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, released a letter it sent to Lungarini.

DPH acting commissioner Deidre Gifford recommended to Lungarini that in order to limit the risk in football and volleyball, two sports considered to be of a higher risk than the rest of the fall sports, significant modifications be made to the sports.

"For example," the letter said, "moving girls' volleyball outdoors or playing a '7v7' style of football that eliminates tackling and line play may be modifications that would allow both of these sports to be considered in the 'moderate risk' outdoor sports category."

Lungarini said in a telephone interview Monday that the DPH recommendations were just that: recommendations. The CIAC Board of Control's dialogue with the DPH has been ongoing since July 24, Lungarini said, and still is.

"In the letter from DPH, they suggest we should explore opportunities to reduce the risk of football and volleyball and they give some examples, the same examples that are listed in the National Federation of High Schools document," Lungarini said.

But oh, boy. The reaction to the mention of 7-on-7 football and outdoor volleyball drew a range of emotions.

"We cannot play 7-on-7 football and we can't play volleyball outside," Ledyard High School athletic director Jim Buonocore said. "Nobody's interested in playing 7-on-7. Nobody's interested in outdoor volleyball."

Buonocore was just getting started. He has a bigger problem, he said, with the lack of a decision on what shape high school sports will take this fall and with the CIAC stating that no sports will move from one season to another.

"We're sitting here on Aug. 24 and our student-athletes have no firm decision made on what athletics is going to look like this fall," Buonocore said. "We have medical professionals — I'm not a medical professional — saying it's either safe to play or not safe to play.

"If they're saying soccer, field hockey, cross country, swimming, they're safe to play ... let's go do that. If they're saying volleyball and football are not safe, let's move them to the second semester in between winter and spring seasons."

Buonocore said these are uncommon times and to cancel a sport without the option of moving it is not fair to the student-athletes, many of whom will be playing that sport for the final time in their careers.

"They're saying if the sport gets canceled, that's it? I have a problem with that. That was very difficult to stomach," Buonocore said. "No option should be off the table, no door should be closed. We have a whole school year ahead of us. You have to exhaust all options. I cannot accept that something is canceled if it does not go off in the normal time."

Waterford football coach John Strecker said that 7-on-7 football, without linemen, would cut the opportunity for players to participate in half. Strecker said "that's not even football; it takes a huge part of the game out of it."

"The problem is, there's a lot of kids who play football and that's the only sport they play and they wouldn't be in that (7-on-7) league," Strecker said. "There's a lot of kids that just wouldn't participate. Seven-on-seven football is as much real football as Wiffle ball is to baseball. They're not the same thing at all."

The CIAC originally permitted high school athletic teams to begin conditioning in small groups as of July 6 to allow "resocialization" to sports, with athletes having missed the spring season due to COVID-19, and announced on July 31 that an abbreviated, regionalized fall season would begin on Sept. 24.

The CIAC announced on Aug. 12 that it would stick to that plan for fall sports. A DPH recommendation was made known the following day, though, that football and volleyball, considered to be of higher risk, be either moved to the spring or canceled.

On Aug. 14, the CIAC suspended all in-person sport activity, including conditioning, while the organization tried to reconcile its differences with the DPH.

The CIAC and the DPH met for more than two hours on Thursday, followed by a CIAC Board of Control meeting Friday to discuss Thursday's progress.

The Board of Control met again Sunday night and issued a statement. The board said that conditioning would be allowed in small cohorts beginning Monday and that schools may begin non-contact sport specific work on Saturday. The CIAC will work this week to finalize a further timeline of full team activities.

"Their position in looking at our plan did change," Lungarini said of the DPH. "They were able to articulate to us why it did change. As we sit here today, we're continuing to have very good dialogue with them trying to provide the best opportunities for kids.

"You can't predict COVID. The only thing we can truly go by is what we know right now. The numbers say it's appropriate to play. We have a very good relationship with DPH. We'll continue to have conversations with them."

Lungarini said one reason the CIAC decided not to permit sports be moved to another season is because there's no guarantee the metrics involving the novel coronavirus will look any better in the future than they do now.

"It's difficult," Lungarini said. "You just can't predict what opportunities will be available tomorrow. Looking to the spring, it's difficult to say we're going to move things to the spring. If we can offer any type of opportunities to kids now, we should do that.

"Until we have the vaccine and the positive outlook on COVID for the long term, the only thing you can count on is numbers you have right now."

Lungarini said he is interested to hear DPH's view on the discrepancy between allowing the youth sports which have been played all summer, but not allowing some high school sports.

"The DPH hasn't said anything about youth sports," said East Lyme volleyball coach Jack Biggs, asked his opinion about outdoor volleyball, but also offering his perspective as a youth baseball coach.

"I've been all over the world playing youth baseball. We're 30 games in and we still have four weeks to play. My kids are already playing soccer. Out of all of that, since the end of June I think we got cleared, not one case (of COVID); I haven't heard of one case.

"I'd just like to hear that debate. I don't understand it. There are kids playing sports all over up here."

v.fulkerson@theday.com