Multiple sources inside and outside of La Joya ISD have indicated the three-high school district in Hidalgo County is not going to participate in fall sports this year. 

On Thursday, La Joya ISD announced the start of school would be September 8, and for eight weeks this would be in an online-only format. This would push the start of in-person learning to early November and La Joya ISD has stated that sports can't begin until in-person learning starts.

As has been reported by multiple news outlets, Hidalgo County and the Rio Grande Valley in general has been among the hardest hit locales in the country with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This late start would make it impossible for the district's three high schools (La Joya High, Palmview and Juarez-Lincoln) to particiapte in fall sports. It is expected that the two District Executive Committee's that La Joya schools are part of have already been verbally notified and official notification will take place on Monday. 

This would mean District 31-6A would go from a nine team district to a seven team district as La Joya and Juarez-Lincoln would not be a part of the district schedule; the remaining seven teams in this district were split into zones.

It'll be interesting to see if those schools keep the zone set-up or try to play a full round-robin schedule. Palmview, who has made the playoffs the last two years in 16-5A Division I, not playing will leave 16-5A Division I with nine-teams, so expect that district to remain with the zone concept they came up with a couple of weeks ago. 

Currently there are four UIL schools that play football that have announced they will not play in the fall: Ben Bolt, La Joya, La Joya Juarez-Lincoln and La Joya Palmview.