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Along with the announcement that Albert Lea Public Schools would be transitioning to distance learning starting Nov. 18, came the additional announcement that school sports would also be put on hold as long as the school was in a distance learning model.

The distance learning model is set to start Wednesday and go through Dec. 6 at the earliest. The district will announce how it plans to move forward after that period by Dec. 3, according to a press release by the Albert Lea activities office.

During that time period, no Albert Lea teams will be allowed to play in games or have practices, no school building can be used for any activities and no facility reservations will be accepted.

For the fall sports, that means their season will come to an end Tuesday. The volleyball team will have two more games, both on the road. They will play against Mankato West on Saturday and Red Wing Tuesday night. The volleyball team will miss out on the postseason after winning their first game in two years.

As for the football team, the Tigers have already played their final game of the season. Despite the first game of the Section 1AAAA tournament being played on Tuesday, if the Tigers were to win that game they would be unable to play in the following game. Since the Tigers would be unable to play past the first round, it was deemed they would not be entered into the section tournament, ending their season at 0-3.

The transition to distance learning will also affect the start of the winter sports season. All of Albert Lea’s winter sports were set to begin practices before Dec. 7, and many of them were scheduled to have at least one game before then. Due to the number of practices required before the first game, many of the season may be shortened. All registrations for the winter activities will remain open until the school is cleared to resume activities.