Maryland creating a state of confusion
High school sports seems to be heading in 2 distinct directions
Are you ready for some football?
Yes, Maryland— and Iwon’t sayMaryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association because these decisions seem to unfortunately be going above their collective heads— is giving local school systems the choice to begin playing high school sports as early as Oct. 7.
This comes not even twoweeks after the
MPSSAA released its state-approved plan to play three eight-week seasons beginning in February.
So which is it? School systems nowhave a choice to make, and the clock is ticking.
IsMaryland in the business of state championships or simply providing kids the opportunity to participate? Because, frankly, it can’t go bothways.
Which is the real plan? Both have laid the framework for a “culminating event”— not flatly sayingwhether that’s a state championship or tournament to avoid a letdown— but nothing said Thursday by Superintendent of Schools Karen Salmon, Gov. LarryHogan or the MPSSAA made it clear which of the two plans will have state championships, if they even happen. It can’t be both.
If the counties hit hardest by the coronavirus— Montgomery, Prince George’s, Baltimore, Anne Arundel andHoward— decide to stick with the two-semester plan and start play in February, and the rest of the state plans to play starting in October, there simply can’t be state tournaments.
Isn’t that what people reallywanted? Or was it just a chance to play and get kids back on the field? I guess that depends on whomyou ask.
If the state came out and declared one plan as having state championships, that would certainly sway decision-making. But nobody is ready to commit to that right now.
What a mess.
Logistically, asking a blindsided school system to prepare for a high school sports season in less than twoweeks while kids are still in virtual learning is a nightmare.
For now, timelines don’t even add up. School systems need to make their decision quickly and likely without knowing what other counties are doing.
Are they going to have emergency board of education meetings for superintendents to make their pitch? Howard County, for example, doesn’t have its next board meeting scheduled until Oct. 8.
Starting with the obvious, howwill school systems handle the coronavirus? Do coaches have towear masks? What about student-athletes? Will they have towear it on the sideline? Will anyone enforce it?
“I’m not the mask police,” one person told me Thursday.
The NFL fined five coaches $100,000 for their inability to properlywear a mask during games, and that’s with daily testing and contact tracing. Will there be consequences for high school coaches whowear masks as a chinstrap?
Surely school systems can’t afford testing for everyone. If there is an outbreak, can they even do proper contact tracing? I would doubt that.
If there’s an outbreak and a team has to cancel games, howare they made up? How long do they need to stay off the field? Just look at howmany gamesMajor League Baseball lost early in the season because of coronavirus outbreaks.
What about the coaches who will inevitably opt out? There will be some, and schools will have to find new coaches in record time. Heck, some schools still don’t have coaches for all their fall sports teams yet. You can throwregular hiring practices out the window.
What happens when a head coach gets COVID-19? Code ofMaryland regulations say volunteer coaches cannot serve as head coaches and shall onlywork under the head coach. Most teams don’t have paid assistants. Sure, the JV coach could do it— if those teams are playing too— but that wouldn’twork for baseball or softball, when JV teams play at different locations.
Howabout the inequity of getting kids to and frompractice? Will the school systems provide buses? Will they be cleaned regularly between trips? Even in a hybrid setting, kidswon’t be in the building every day, but practiceswait for no one and are five or six days aweek.
What about equipment? Many schools have frozen athletic budgets during the pandemic. Is there enough time tomake sure every programhas what it needs to safely operate?
Daylight savings time isNov. 1. The sun will set at 5:05 p.m. that Sunday.
Howwill, say, Howard County golfers who don’t finish virtual learning until 3:15 p.m., be able to start matches after school ends and still complete nine holes before it gets too dark to finish? Will golf courses, even with such short notice, be willing to sacrifice valuable afternoon tee times during the month of October?
What about field hockey, a sport that— when not playing on lighted turf fields— routinely battles finishing before darkness as a usual season progresses into October?
Teams will fight for field use, and it will be a tough task for athletic directors to figure that out equitably. Will junior varsity teams play and practice, or do they get squeezed out and programs are forced to cut participation in half?
Howabout team selections during tryouts? Are kids really expected to go from zero to100? This isn’t 1985.
Numerous rec leagues have started up for high school athletes, who have paid to play. Are they going to opt out of the high school season or try to do both?
Will fans be allowed at games? What about parents or the media? Well, of course, the state relaxed health guidelines afterHogan’s news conference Thursday, and nownonprofessional sports gatherings can have no more than 50%, or 100 people — whichever is fewer— indoors, and 50%, or 250 people, outdoors.
It’s nowup to individual counties to make a decision, but is there even a right answer? No matter which plan they pick, it’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
The state has set up nobody for success.