WEST VIRGINIA— In November, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice made the decision to push the start of winter sports back to January 11. As that date draws nearer, and the Coronavirus outbreak continues to run ramped, he announced on Wednesday that the start of winter sports has been delayed even further.

During his COVID briefing, Justice revealed that because of concerns surrounding the spread of COVID-19, all winter sports for school aged athletes are being put on hold until March. These sports include, basketball, swimming and wrestling.

According to Justice, he didn’t see it plausible for sports to convene with the current status of the color-coded COVID map, saying that he felt the date simply had to be pushed back.

“We are now targeting March 1 to be the startup, and I hate this like crazy, but we are going to have to move our winter sports to March 1. So that will be the startup date,” Justice said.

It is his hope that pushing the start date back, even more individuals will have received the COVID-19 vaccine by that time, lessening the risk of spreading the virus even more so.

“We’ve got a lot of time left in the school year to be able to play and have the sports, “Justice voiced. “Just think of the numbers we will have vaccinated at that time. Absolutely, we are very hopeful that this thing is going to turn and we can absolutely go to where we can have the sports indoors. And we can do that starting March 1.”

The WVSSAC recently released a revised winter and spring sports schedule. Previously state basketball championships were pushed into early April , now all spring sports championships have been pushed into the month of June.