VHSL monitors Canadian wildfire smoke as spring anniversaries draw closer

The Spring Jubilee, the league’s state semifinals and championship events, are scheduled to take place at multiple locations on Friday and Saturday.

Two Lynchburg-area teams, the Jefferson Forest boys’ soccer team and the Liberty Christian baseball team, are scheduled to play Friday in the Spring Jubilee semifinals of grades 3 and 4 at high schools in Spotsylvania County, about 60 to 70 miles southwest from Washington, DC, which is currently shrouded in a plume of orange smoke.

In an email from communications director Mike McCall on Wednesday afternoon, the league said it would be making a decision on all events at the Classes 3 and 4 Spring Anniversary — and on the Classes 5 and 6 Anniversary to be held in Loudoun County. until Thursday noon.

“Virginia High School League staff are closely monitoring air quality alerts across the Commonwealth,” the statement said. “The VHSL uses AirNow.gov to track the air quality index (AQI) in the areas where spring anniversaries are scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Based on the most accurate information, staff will make the safest decision possible for student athletes, coaches and spectators.”

In addition, the league announced on Wednesday:

• The Class 1 and Class 2 anniversaries taking place in Salem will proceed as planned as the Roanoke area is in the “good to moderate range” of the AQI.
• The Class 1-3 state tennis championships scheduled for Virginia Tech will proceed as scheduled. In case of problems with the AQI, indoor facilities are available.
• The Grades 4-6 tennis championships now begin Thursday at Huntington Park, Newport News.

Millions of Americans in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest are currently under air quality warnings because smoke has been pouring in from hundreds of wildfires that have been raging unchecked in central Canada since Wednesday afternoon.