Delaying fall sports the best option
Move would give everyone time to develop safety protocols
At long last, we are near an outline of what the 2020-21 high school athletic season will look like.
On Thursday, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) released their guidelines that govern youth, K-12, and adult amateur athletics. Most of the document focuses on moderate and high-risk sports which, in order to compete, have to implement strict modifications to limit contact between opposing athletes. Monday afternoon, the MIAA COVID19 Task Force is meeting with Jeffrey C. Riley, the commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), with its proposal for the athletic year.
While that proposal is not official, it is likely to create a fourth season for high-risk sports that cannot be played, including most notably football. It’s also expected to allow districts to opt-out of the fall season if they are unable to field teams these next few months and simply transition those sports into the fourth season. The intention is to leave districts the flexibility to offer as many sports as possible based on their individual situation.
Riley and his staff, of course, have the ability to reject that proposal and release their own plan for the athletic year. The MIAA Board of Directors has already voted to accept any guidelines the EEA and DESE recommend surrounding K-12 sports.
It’s important to be clear about the goal of high school sports this year. Similar to other states, there are likely to be no state tournaments with only sectional or regional play. We are looking at seasons with no non-conference games and where teams may only be able to play regional opponents. For one year, high school sports will not be about hoisting trophies, it will solely be about giving as many kids a chance to participate as possible. This is about giving studentathletes across all sports a chance to compete regardless of season length and what accolades come when the games end.
Over the last five months administrators, coaches, and parents have aggressively made the case that high school sports should be a priority because they provide opportunities for kids to become members of a community, develop relationships, and escape troubles from home. They are right.
As a result, it’s important that all parties realize that those are the reasons high school sports should be safely played this year.
If there needs to be 7-on-7 football to get those players on the field, it must be orchestrated. If hockey and lacrosse are required to become non-contact then coaches must be given the proper time to implement and teach kids the new rules. If seasons need to be shortened so that all student-athletes have a chance to play the sport they love for an equal amount of time this year, so be it.
For a while, I was a firm believer that the MIAA and its member schools should try and conduct any fall sports the state deemed safe to play. With football likely unattainable until further notice, that left soccer, girls volleyball, girls swimming, field hockey, cross country, and volleyball as sports that could take place over the following few months.
In recent weeks, however, the circumstances have changed. Schools, in constant negotiations with the Massachusetts Teacher Association, are struggling to develop reopening plans that suit students, teachers and administrators. Those same schools are trying to create ways to safely transport kids to school and provide them proper educational materials when they are in remote learning.
The EEA guidelines for moderate-risk sports were far stricter than most anticipated. Participants for soccer, field hockey, and girls volleyball must wear masks at all times even when playing and deliberate and intermittent contact must be kept to a minimum.
This week, the MIAA sport committees will be assigned by the COVID-19 Task Force and the Board of Directors to outline the new modifications that these moderate-risk sports will follow. Those modifications then have to be sent to the EEA for approval before administrators, coaches, and players have the chance to make sure they are implemented properly. Those steps must take place in the four weeks between now and the designated start of the fall season.
The decision-makers are simply not moving fast enough to safely implement these sports.
With so much uncertainty about what restrictions players will have to abide by and to give ample time to administrators and coaches to make sure players can successfully follow them, districts should optout of participating in moderate and high-risk sports this fall and play those during a makeshift ‘fall season’ wedged between the winter and spring. Low-risk sports golf and cross country should go on as planned. More importantly, this will give school administrators, principals, and superintendents the chance to develop plans for how to run athletics safely, smoothly, and efficiently in a remote or hybrid model if districts are in that situation come the winter.
Districts choosing this path will allow for uniformity across the board for the MIAA and its member schools and prevent a growing opportunity gap between the select few who can continue to play as normal and the many who are currently in disarray on how to provide kids with the chance to play this fall.
“If there is not a dramatic shift in the seasonal structure for this school year, the opportunity gap will be widened and those urban communities who have experienced COVID-19 at a higher rate will be left behind,” said Billy Sittig, Boston Public Schools assistant athletic director.
Schools should follow the threeseason condensed model heavily promoted by Burlington athletic director Shaun Hart and under discussion within the COVID-19 Task Force. It allows the winter sport season to run Jan. 4 to Feb. 27, the remaining fall sports to be conducted March 1 to April 24, and then spring to cap off the year from April 26 to June 19.
To help balance the worry of club sports coming in and taking over sports this fall, and to allow kids to remain involved in their high school communities, the MIAA Board of Directors should place a one-year exemption on the out-ofseason coach student-athlete contact rule. All coaches, including those overseeing sports currently categorized as high-risk, should have the opportunity to work with and hold practices with their players this fall and throughout the year as long as they are following EEA guidelines. Delaying the athletic year and allowing more sport-specific interaction between coaches and student-athletes will give ample and necessary time to help teach players the modifications that are expected to be handed down for moderate- and high-risk sports and allow all athletes an equal chance to participate.