BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) — The Louisiana High School Athletic Association is pushing for school sports to happen this fall, but they say whether or not school sports teams will have practices and games depends on when Louisiana moves into Phase Four.

“We’ve got to get to Phase Four if we want to play football,” LHSAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine said in a presentation with the Louisiana House Education Committee Monday.

Bonine said for schools to continue with their scheduled sports seasons this fall, Louisiana must be in Phase Four before August 10.

“In Phase Three, football players can wear their pads, and they can suit up. But there’s still no head-banging and collision, if you will. It’s more about conditioning and getting prepared for the season,” Bonine said.

He says right now during the summer months, student-athletes are allowed to train, doing weight-lifting and conditioning, but they can’t have practices. He says it’ll stay that way this fall if the state isn’t at Phase Four yet.

“When it comes to what could potentially happen, what the season is going to look like, what the timeline is going to look like, it all depends on when we get students back to school,” he added.

He says even if student-athletes are allowed to have games and tournaments this fall, games could still look different. The LHSAA is even considering not allowing fans at events.

“That’s the most important part for me. We’ve got to have education first then we’re going to have athletics that will be closely behind, but I truly believe there’s a blend there we have to have and will continue to have.”

The LHSAA says Louisiana must be in Phase Four before August 10 for student-athletes to continue with normal practices and games this fall.