Ohio's 2020 high school football season will be comprised of just six games beginning Aug. 24 with every team eligible for the playoffs, according to a message from the Ohio High School Athletic Association's interim executive director, Bob Goldring, on Friday.

If the plan is approved by Gov. Mike DeWine, all teams will enter the playoffs beginning Oct. 9, and state championship games will be played no later than Nov. 21.

"Schools also will be afforded the opportunity to play 10 total regular-season contests — whether they continue regular-season games after they are eliminated from the playoffs or should they decide not to enter the playoffs — as long as they complete their season by November 14," Goldring's announcement read.

OHSAA's board approved the measure unanimously Friday.

“To both ensure we can offer students the opportunity to participate in education‐based athletes but do so with their best interests in mind, we believe this modified plan offers a positive solution by addressing many of the concerns of our member schools,” said Jeff Cassella, president of the OHSAA Board of Directors and athletic administrator at Mentor High School. “Those that are able to start their seasons on time will be able to do so. Those that are starting later can still have a season. Add in the option of all schools entering the playoffs and the possibility of schools still being able to play 10 regular-season contests, and this plan is helpful to virtually all of our schools.”

In a recent OHSAA membership survey, the highest number of responses to one of the questions posed of superintendents, principals and athletic administrators indicated that nearly 60% (890 of 1,498 respondents) favored reducing the regular season and maintaining full OHSAA tournaments, or maintaining the full regular season and maintaining full OHSAA tournaments.

In 2020, the number of playoff rounds will be dependent upon the number of schools entering the playoffs in each division. Schools eliminated from the OHSAA playoffs or that choose not to enter the OHSAA playoffs will have the option to schedule additional regular-season contests through Nov. 14, with a maximum of 10 regular-season contests permitted.

Here's what the 2020 season will look like:

• Regular season Week 1: Week of Aug. 24
• Regular season Week 2: Week of Aug. 31
• Regular season Week 3: Week of Sept. 7
• Regular season Week 4: Week of Sept. 14
• Regular season Week 5: Week of Sept. 21
• Regular season Week 6: Week of Sept. 28
• Playoffs begin Friday, Oct. 9
• State finals end no later than Saturday, Nov. 21

Read more in the viewer below:

20200807 Administrator Update by WCPO Web Team on Scribd

The cauldron will be snuffed Sunday on the exhausting, enlightening, sometimes enraging 2020 Tokyo Olympics — held, actually, in 2021. These are the Games that were to be tolerated, not celebrated.

They will be both.

Imperfect but not impossible, these Olympics — willed into existence despite a pandemic that sparked worldwide skepticism and hard-wired opposition from Japan's own citizens — just might go down as the Games that changed sports for good.

The countries that typically dominate the numbers game have done so again when tallying gold, silver and bronze. But there have been some big surprises along the way, some of them delivered by smaller nations, older athletes and teenage newcomers. Sunday is the last day of competition in Tokyo.

As they did in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the United States and China rank first and second in total medals. After Saturday, the U.S. led the total medal count with 108, including 36 gold.

China wanted a big medal count ahead of hosting the 2022 Beijing Winter Games in February. China had 87 total medals after Saturday, 38 of them gold, bolstered by strong results in diving, shooting, weightlifting and gymnastics.

Here are some things to watch as things wrap up:

Women's basketball

Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi will try to lead the U.S. women's basketball team to a seventh consecutive gold medal when the Americans play Japan in the Olympic final.

Bird and Taurasi will be going for a record fifth gold — an achievement no other basketball player has ever accomplished.

Japan has already assured itself the first Olympic medal in women’s basketball in the country’s history. Coach Tom Hovasse had said when he was hired a little over four years ago that his team would be playing against the Americans for gold at the Tokyo Games.

His team proved him right.

Women's volleyball

The U.S. seeks its first gold medal ever in women’s volleyball when the Americans take on Brazil in the finals on Sunday.

The United States has won three silver medals and two bronze since 1984, but has never stood at the top of the podium at the Olympics. The Americans lost to Brazil in 2008 and '12 and to China in 1984.

U.S. coach Karch Kiraly is looking to join China’s Lang Ping as the only Olympians to win gold as a player in volleyball and also a coach. His team is led by three-time Olympians Jordan Larson and Foluke Akinradewo Gunderson, who have already won silver and bronze medals.

TOKYO —

A giant flag will be flown from the Eiffel Tower on Sunday that Paris Olympic organizers claim will be the biggest in history.

The unfurling is planned during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics when the formal handover goes to the next Summer Games host in 2024.

The passing of the hosting baton will be split between the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo and a public party in Paris.

Related video: Tokyo opening ceremony

"It will be biggest flag ever flown," Paris organizing committee president Tony Estanguet said, describing it as the size of a soccer field.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is in Tokyo to take part in the closing ceremony and French President Emmanuel Macron will take part by video link from the French capital.

An Australia team that beat Team USA in a pre-Olympics exhibition was no match for the Americans in a tournament elimination game.Breanna Stewart scored 23 points and filled up the box score with crooked numbers as the Americans won their Olympic quarterfinal with Australia by a 79-55 score in Japan.Their 53rd-straight Olympic win sets the Americans up for a semifinal fight with Serbia.Team USA went down 5-2 very early but Stewart took over, scoring 10 points in a 14-1 run leading into a timeout. She'd finish the first half with 20 points.The Americans led 26-12 after one quarter, Stewart well on her way to upping the ante following 9, 15, and 17 points in her first three games of the Olympics.Australia, of course, didn't quit and opened the second quarter with a 13-2 run spurred by a 3-point play from Stephanie Talbot and a straight-up 3-pointer from Leilani Mitchell, who had nine points in the first half.It was a red herring, though, as Team USA dominated at both ends of the floor. The Americans held Australia to 30 percent shooting, blocking five shots while dishing out 24 assists (led by Chelsea Gray's eight). Coach Dawn Staley got everyone in the game, but it was all about Stewart. She shot 8-of-10 from the floor including 2-of-3 from beyond the arc, grabbing five rebounds to go with two blocked shots, a steal, and three assists. Stewart also drew six fouls.Brittany Griner had the highlight of the game, one of her two blocks and emphatic standing denial. She ended with 15 points, two steals, two blocks, and eight boards.Related video — Olympic Drill: 3x3 Basketball

TOKYO —

Caeleb Dressel got started on his quest for six gold medals in swimming Monday, while Katie Ledecky found herself in a very unusual position.

Second place.

Dressel led off an American victory in the men's 4x100-meter freestyle relay at the Tokyo Olympics, easing a bit of the U.S. sting from Ledecky's first Olympic loss.

Australia's Ariarne Titmus — nicknamed the "Terminator" — lived up to her billing when she chased down Ledecky in the 400 freestyle to win one of the most anticipated races of the Summer Games.

Titmus, who trailed by nearly a full body-length at the halfway mark of the eight-lap race, turned on the speed to touch in 3 minutes, 56.69 seconds. It was the second-fastest time in history.

Ledecky was the defending Olympic champion and world-record holder. She settled for the silver this time in 3:57.36 -- the fourth-fastest time ever recorded.

"I fought tooth and nail," Ledecky said. "She definitely swam a really smart race. She was really controlled up front. I felt pretty smooth and strong going out and flipped at the 300 and it was like, 'Oh, she's right there.'"

And then she was gone.

For the first time in her brilliant Olympic career, Ledecky felt the sting of defeat, dished out by a rival from Down Under who made it clear she was not intimidated by the American star.

"It's surreal," Titmus said. "Crazy when you make this massive plan for something. It's probably the biggest thing you could pull off in your sporting career, so I'm over the moon."

No one else was even close. The bronze went to China's Li Bingjie in 4:01.08.

Then the spotlight shifted to Dressel, who has been hailed as the successor to Michael Phelps.

Dressel gave the U.S. the lead, and the men never relinquished it in the relay. He swam the first leg in a blistering 47.26. Blake Pieroni and Bowe Becker kept the Americans out front before Zach Apple turned in an anchor leg of 46.69 to leave no doubt at the end.

The U.S. won in 3:08.97, the third-fastest time in history. Italy took the silver in 3:10.11, with the bronze going to Australia in 3:10.22.

Apple climbed from the pool to an embrace from Dressel, who is set for a grueling schedule of three individual events and three relays in Tokyo.

One down, five to go.

Ledecky's disappointment was a downer for the Americans, who won six of 12 medals on Sunday but were shut out of the medals in the first two finals Monday.

Torri Huske and Michael Andrew just missed out with fourth-place finishes, then it was Ledecky settling for the second spot on the podium — a very unfamiliar place for perhaps the greatest women's freestyle swimmer in history.

Ledecky lost an individual Olympic final for the first time after winning the 800 free at the 2012 London Games, then capturing three more golds in the 200, 400 and 800 free at Rio de Janeiro five years ago.

"I knew it was going to be a battle to the end," Ledecky said. "I didn't feel like I died. She just had that faster 50 or 75. Can't get much better than that."

Titmus was every bit the Terminator at the end.

"Honestly, at the 200 I was a little bit worried," the Aussie said. "I knew she would be there. No one is going to come to the Olympics and catch a Katie Ledecky unprepared. I guess I just had to trust myself.

"I tried to stay as composed as I could and use the easy speed that I have. And to pull it off in the back end against someone who has an amazing second half of her race, I'm really proud of that. "

Ledecky will get another crack at Titmus in the 200 free, and the American is heavily favored to repeat in the 800 and add another gold in the 1,500 — a new event for the women at these games.

After racing each other right in the middle of the pool, the swimmers clasped hands when it was over.

They climbed out of the pool together, giving each other a hug.

"I just thanked her," Titmus said. "I wouldn't be here without her. She's set this standard for middle-distance freestyle. If I didn't have someone like her to chase I definitely wouldn't be swimming the way I am."

Perhaps the surest bet at the pool, Britain's Adam Peaty repeated as Olympic champion in the men's 100 breaststroke.

Peaty was the world-record holder and the first man to break both 58 and 57 seconds in his signature event. He posted the fifth-fastest time in history (57.37) to blow away the field.

Arno Kamminga of the Netherlands claimed the silver in 58.00, while the bronze went to Italy's Nicolo Martinenghi in 58.33. Andrew was next in 58.84.

Maggie MacNeil captured Canada's first gold medal at the pool with a victory in the women's 100 butterfly.

The reigning world champion touched first in 55.59, edging out Zhang Yufei of China (55.64) for the top spot. Emma McKeon of Australia took the bronze in 55.72, beating the 18-year-old Huske by one-hundredth of a second.

Huske went out fast, as is her style, and appeared to be close to the front with about 10 meters to go. But she faded on her final strokes and just missed a spot on the podium.

Defending champion and world-record holder Sarah Sjöström of Sweden was seventh.

Staging an Olympics during the worst pandemic in a century? There’s a widespread perception that it couldn’t happen in a better place than Japan.

A vibrant, open democracy with deep pockets, the host nation is known for its diligent execution of detail-laden, large-scale projects, its technological advances, its consensus-building and world-class infrastructure. All this, on paper, at least, gives the strong impression that Japan is one of the few places in the world that could even consider pulling off the high-stakes tightrope walk that the Tokyo Games represent.

Some in Japan aren't buying it.

"No country should hold an Olympics during a pandemic to start with. And if you absolutely must, then a more authoritarian and high-tech China or Singapore would probably be able to control COVID better," said Koichi Nakano, a politics professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.

The bureaucratic, technological, logistical and political contortions required to execute this unprecedented feat — a massively complicated, deeply scrutinized spectacle during a time of global turmoil, death and suffering — have already put an unwelcome spotlight on the country.

Most of all, it has highlighted some embarrassing things: that much of Japan doesn't want the Games, that the nation's vaccine rollout was late and is only now expanding, and that many suspect the Games are being forced on the country because the International Olympic Committee needs the billions in media revenue.

The worry here isn't that Tokyo's organizers can't get to the finish line without a major disaster. That seems possible and would allow organizers to claim victory, of a kind.

The fear is that once the athletes and officials leave town, the nation that unwillingly sacrificed much for the cause of global sporting unity might be left the poorer for it, and not just in the tens of billions of dollars it has spent on the Games.

The Japanese public may see an already bad coronavirus situation become even worse; Olympics visitors here have already carried fast-spreading variants of the virus into a nation that is only approaching 25% fully vaccinated.

The Tokyo Olympics are, in one sense, a way for visitors to test for themselves some of the common perceptions about Japan that have contributed to this image of the country as the right place to play host. The results, early on in these Games, are somewhat of a mixed bag.

On the plus side, consider the airport arrivals for the thousands of Olympics participants. They showcased Japan’s ability to harness intensely organized workflow skills and bring them to bear on a specific task — in this case, protection against COVID-19 that might be brought in by a swarm of outsiders.

From the moment visitors stepped from their aircraft at Narita International Airport, they were corralled — gently, cheerfully, but in no uncertain terms firmly — into lines, then guided across the deserted airport like second-graders heading to recess. Barriers, some with friendly signs attached, ensured they got documents checked, forehead temperatures measured, hands sanitized and saliva extracted.

Symmetrical layouts of chairs, each meticulously numbered, greeted travelers awaiting their COVID-19 test results and Olympic credentials were validated while they waited. The next steps — immigration, customs — were equally efficient, managing to be both crisp and restrictive, but also completely amiable. You emerged from the airport a bit dizzy from all the guidance and herding, but with ego largely unbruised.

But there have also been conspicuous failures.

After the opening ceremony ended, for instance, hundreds of people in the stadium were crammed into a corral-like pen, forced to wait cheek by jowl for hours with only a flimsy barricade separating them from curious Japanese onlookers, while dozens of empty buses idled in a line stretching for blocks, barely moving.

Japan does have some obvious advantages over other democracies when it comes to hosting these Games, such as its economic might. As the world's third-largest economy, after the United States and China, it was able to spend the billions needed to orchestrate these protean games, with their mounting costs and changing demands.

Another advantage could be Japan's well-deserved reputation for impeccable customer service. Few places in the world take as much pride in catering to visitors' needs. It's an open question, however, whether that real inclination toward hospitality will be tested by the extreme pressure.

A geopolitical imperative may be another big motivator. Japanese archrival China hosts next year's Winter Games, and many nationalists here maintain that an Olympic failure is not an option amid the struggle with Beijing for influence in Asia. Yoshihide Suga, the prime minister, may also be hoping that a face-saving Games, which he can then declare successful, will help him retain power in fall elections.

And the potential holes in the argument that Japan is the perfect host nation for a pandemic Games?

Start, maybe, with leadership. It has never been clear who is in charge. Is it the city of Tokyo? The national government? The IOC? The Japanese Olympic Committee?

"This Olympics has been an all-Japan national project, but, as is often pointed out, nobody has a clear idea about who is the main organizer," said Akio Yamaguchi, a crisis communications consultant at Tokyo-based AccessEast. "Uncertainty is the biggest risk."

Japan has also faced a problem particular to democracies: a fierce, sometimes messy public debate about whether it was a good idea to hold the Games.

"After the postponement, we have never had a clear answer on how to host the Olympics. The focus was whether we can do it or not, instead of discussing why and how to do it," said Yuji Ishizaka, a sports sociologist at Nara Women’s University.

"Japan is crucially bad at developing a 'plan B.' Japanese organizations are nearly incapable of drafting scenarios where something unexpected happens," Ishizaka said. "There was very little planning that simulated the circumstances in 2021."

Another possibly shaky foundation of outside confidence in Japan is its reputation as a technologically adept wonder of efficiency.

Arriving athletes and reporters "will probably realize that Japan is not as high-tech or as efficient as it has been often believed," Nakano said. "More may then realize that it is the utter lack of accountability of the colluded political, business and media elites that 'enabled' Japan to hold the Olympics in spite of very negative public opinion — and quite possibly with considerable human sacrifice."

The Tokyo Games are a Rorschach test of sorts, laying out for examination the many different ideas about Japan as Olympic host. For now, they raise more questions than they answer.

Will virus cases and deaths spike? Will political fortunes be reversed? Will an international reputation for high-tech efficiency be exposed as not quite right?

Japan has taken a big risk, gambling that it can pull off these unprecedented Games. Whatever the politicians and nationalists say about their success in the coming days, a true answer about whether Japan really was the right place to host will have to wait until after the Olympic flame is snuffed out and the visitors leave. Only then, with some distance, will clarity arrive.

___

AP writers Kantaro Komiya and Ted Anthony contributed to this report. Foster Klug, news director for Japan, the Koreas, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific at The Associated Press, has been covering Asia since 2005 and is based in Tokyo.

Related video: Surging COVID-19 Infections Loom Over U.S. While Tokyo Olympics Faces Potential Chaos

An American gymnast and a Czech beach volleyball player were added to the tally Tuesday of people accredited for the Tokyo Olympics who have tested positive for COVID-19 this month.

Tokyo Olympics organizers said 71 people have now tested positive. The total includes 31 people among the tens of thousands of international visitors expected in Japan to compete or work at the Games, which open Friday.

Positive tests for United States gymnastics alternate Kara Eaker and Czech team member Ondřej Perušič were announced Monday. Eaker was at a training camp in Chiba prefecture and Perušič stayed at the Olympic Village in Tokyo Bay.

Both went into 14-day quarantine, organizers said. That period includes all three of Perušič’s scheduled games with playing partner David Schweiner.

A new case among 13 added to the official total Tuesday includes a “games-concerned personnel” — a category including team officials and sports staffers — in Tokyo who is not staying at the village.

Other newly reported cases scattered across Japan include Games contractors and a volunteer.