SIDELINED
Raimondo says no high school football, volleyball until 2021
PROVIDENCE – Most school sports will be allowed to be played this fall, with many including some on-field modifications to avoid direct contact, but football and volleyball players will have to wait until at least the spring to play their sport, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo announced on Friday.
Saying that youth sports are vital and important in the life of a child, Raimondo outlined the sports that will be fully allowed, allowed with modifications, and not allowed this fall during her daily COVID-19 press briefing inside the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence.
Cross-country and tennis will be played without restrictions and with very minimal changes, with conditioning and practice starting on Sept. 21 before competition begins in early October and is played through Thanksgiving.
Sports to be played with modifications will include soccer, field hockey, and sideline cheer.
“These sports have more physical contact than cross-country or tennis, but we feel it’s safe for middle school and high school kids to participate in these sports,” the governor said. “They’re played outdoors on relatively large fields and there is an ability to limit the degree of close contact between players.”
They will, however, be played with certain modifications, she said, noting, for example, soccer will not be “exactly the way it was last year.”
“These modifications will be consistent with what other states across New England are doing,” Raimondo said. “The experts at the Department of Health will be working with the Interscholastic League and DEM to identify exactly what those modifications will look like and once they are determined in the next couple of weeks, they’ll be communicated to school principals, athletic directors, and teams before the start of the season.”
“It’ll be things like new regulations around disinfecting the ball, penalties for intentional direct contact, electronic whistles for referees, restrictions on throw-ins, so that’s the kinds of
restrictions they’re going to consider,” she continued. “We believe that those modifications will allow you to play the game in essence competitively but also keep you safe.”
Department of Environmental Management Director Janet Coit said that masks will be part of the modifications, with the expectation that face coverings will be worn during close-contact sports.
Football and volleyball, however, will not be allowed this fall, as Raimondo explained that these two sports carry too much risk during the ongoing pandemic.
“I know that’s a bummer and I’m sorry for that. Volleyball is played indoors
and all the players touch the same ball, so we don’t feel that is safe for us to right now have competitive high school volleyball,” Raimondo explained. “And football obviously requires very close contact through blocking and tackling. So that, I understand, is a great disappointment to a lot of kids out there but I don’t want you to lose hope.”
While some states around the country are continuing to play high school football this fall, Raimondo said she deferred to the experts in the decision to cancel the sport and try to play it in the spring.
“We just didn’t think it was safe. We’re in really good shape, our percent positive is less than one percent, we want all the kids to go back to school safely, we went around it and around it but I
deferred to the experts in both sports and public health. It’s tough with these kids, they’re literally on top of each other constantly, it’s about as close as close contact as you can get and we just didn’t think it was safe.”
Raimondo said she was hopeful for football and volleyball to be moved to the spring and played during a special season called “Fall 2.”
“Hoping by then things will be better and it’ll be safer … Hang in there, we hope that you’ll be able to play in the spring,” the governor told the young athletes.
Raimondo said the state guidelines entitle all districts to participate in fall sports, including those that are engaged in distance learning this fall, whether their virtual learning is state-mandated or was voted on by local school committees.
“We are allowing the kids in those districts to go ahead and play sports according to these guidelines. We decided it wouldn’t be right to punish the kids for the unwillingness of the adults in their districts to do the hard work of getting the kids back to school,” Raimondo said. “In particular in those districts, when these kids are going to be alone and isolated in their room for six, seven, eight hours a day, this might be the only opportunity that they will have to have in-person contact with a mentor and a coach or with their friends, to get out of their house, to get some fresh air, and to be part of a team.”