PITTSBORO — High school volleyball and cross country teams at Northwood, Jordan-Matthews and Chatham Central can resume voluntary preseason workouts on Oct, 7, the Chatham County Schools Board of Education decided at a special meeting Tuesday night.

Other high school sports teams can resume workouts four to six weeks before their first official practice dates set by the NCHSAA, according to a presentation by district athletic director Chris Blice.

Board chairperson Gary Leonard’s motion to approve Blice’s plan, which passed unanimously, 5-0, cleared the way for sports to gradually resume in the county after a roughly two-month dead period.

CCS athletics were previously suspended indefinitely in mid-July after the board first voted to start the 2020-21 school year under all-remote Plan C learning. But Tuesday’s motion confirmed athletics will be an exemption to that rule going forward even with all CCS schools in Plan C through Jan. 15, 2021.

Volleyball and cross country teams got priority in the plan because their seasons start the soonest under the NCHSAA’s overhauled 2020-21 athletics calendar. Those sports can hold their first official practices on Nov. 4 and first official competitions on Nov. 16.

Blice’s presentation, which can be viewed on the board’s website, also included information on a condensed middle school athletics schedule tentatively set to begin in January.

The principals and athletic directors of Northwood, Jordan-Matthews and Chatham Central all supported Blice’s district-wide plan for high school sports. In allowing workouts to resume, CCS joins a majority of school districts (including Wake County Schools) who have done so in the last few months.

Reporter Chapel Fowler can be reached at cfowler@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @chapelfowler.