rules to start extra innings — pumped-in crowd
noise, and a lack of fans in attendance awaited the
players.
What Truist Park will look like on April 9 when
the Braves host the Philadelphia Phillies in their first
home game of the 2021 season remains to be seen. If
the models of other professional sports are followed,
there will be fans back in the stands. The question
remains: how many? And the MLB is planning a full
162-game season, complete with the annual All-Star
game that is scheduled to be played in Cobb County at
Truist Park on July 13.
With the exception of Division I football in the
Football Bowl Subdivision, all collegiate fall sports
were canceled. Some, like Football Championship
Subdivision Football, which includes Kennesaw State,
moved their schedule to the spring of 2021. It is set to
kick off in late February.
The Georgia High School Association put in new
rules and regulations to follow because of the virus.
Fans were limited at all venues but the high school
games went on.
74 FORECAST 2021
The Mount Paran Christian and Lassiter softball
teams were the beneficiaries, as they both earned state
championships. The same can be said for the Marietta
boys and girls, and the Pope girls in cross country.
The winter sports returned in full swing with
basketball, wrestling and swimming. Spring sports are
expected to do the same.
The Masters will return to Georgia’s Augusta
National and be played just six months after 2020’s
tournament. That tradition of all traditions was moved
back from its usual April showing to November last
year due to the pandemic. The 2021 version returns to
its usual time slot and will be played April 8 — 11.
The 2020 Summer Olympics will start a year late due to
COVID-19. The summer games were rescheduled to take
place at host city Tokyo from July 23 to Aug. 8. Unless
plans change (and at the time of this writing, there is talk
of another delay), the Winter Olympics in Beijing will
begin just six months after the Summer Games.
Major League Rugby was just taking hold in Cobb
County when the coronavirus hit. As of this writing,
the 2021 season will start as scheduled. The home
team Rugby ATL is scheduled to kick off its 16-game
season against Rugby United NY at 7 p.m. March 20 at
its home field at Life University.
U.S. Open Tennis is expected to return Aug. 30 to
Sept. 12 at Flushing Meadows in New York.
Rugby ATL played its first regular season match at home at
Marietta’s Life University Campus last year, rallying after a slow
first half to defeat the Utah Warriors 28-19.
Kennesaw State’s Bryson Armstrong, a former Kell High School
standout and three-time All-American, will try to help lead the
Owls to their third Big South championship in four seasons this
spring. Kelly J. Huff