DeWine asks for no fans; OHSAA says parents are OK

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, in his daily news conference Nov. 24, announced the state is asking schools that are conducting winter sports to do so without fans until the end of the calendar year amid an uptick in the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“Let me talk for a moment about sports,” DeWine said. “Some schools have suspended winter sports until January. For those that have not suspended sports, we would ask you, when you conduct winter sports — basketball games, whatever — to do so without fans. This is another opportunity for us just to pull back.”

The Ohio High School Athletic Association, amid DeWine’s news conference, tweeted in real time to clarify the mandate applied to fans, but not to parents of student-athletes.

Later Nov. 24, the OHSAA issued further clarification in a prepared statement.

“We want to follow this recommendation so that our kids can continue to compete,” OHSAA Executive Director Doug Ute said. “We believe it is crucial that parents be permitted to attend the contests of their children, but large crowds at our indoor athletic contests are not a good idea at this time. We all need to work together to give our kids and schools the best chance at having a full winter season.”

Schools will decide on the number of parents that can attend and where they will be placed within a facility.

The OHSAA laid out further guidelines in its statement:

• For those schools that decide to admit parents, list

the names of the parents on a roster sheet that is located at your ticket window/admission table. This will help clarify who should/should not be admitted and will hopefully eliminate nonparents from attending.

• Limit media to those who normally cover your school and consider utilizing a streaming service in order for fans to view your contest(s).

• There is no prohibition on cheerleaders and pep bands, but schools should make their own decisions on these students’ participation and should strongly consider not sending cheerleaders to away contests.

Nov. 23, high school sports were addressed in a broader sense, as DeWine encouraged individual responsibility. He shared the story from a superintendent, who stated his concern not so much with attendance at events, but the aftermath, citing fans, student-athletes and families who go home after an event, unmask and have a meal, not realizing the ramifications because it’s close contacts.

Much of the Nov. 23 conference was hospital officials from around Ohio

noting how overwhelmed their respective systems currently are, with one stating they were “sounding the alarm bell” over getting numbers back down.

DeWine, in noting the request for no fans at winter sports through the holidays, cited the need for patience.

“It allows our studentathletes to continue to play, which, as a parent or grandparent, is the most important thing, much as we would like to see them play,” DeWine said. “As one superintendent told me today, the idea of bringing 200 adults into our gym is, at this point during the pandemic with the spread that we’re seeing, just makes absolutely no sense.

“So we would ask schools to do that, again, between now and the first of the year. That is something we certainly will re-evaluate. But again, this period between now and the first of the year is just vitally important. If we’re going to keep our kids in school, if we’re going to do the things that we really feel are vital, it’s very, very important.”

According to DeWine, there were 8,604 new cases of COVID-19 reported Nov. 24. There were 364 new

hospitalizations, 98 deaths and 29 new admissions to intensive care.

Nov. 20, the OHSAA reaffirmed its commitment to starting winter sports, although the governing body noted the need for flexibility with schools that may need to pause.

“Though we are seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases in Ohio, the majority of our member schools want the opportunity to move forward with winter sports as planned,” OHSAA Executive Director Doug Ute said at the time. “As always, the decision to play sports is a local school decision and there will certainly be schools that pause sports for periods of time in the months to come, but if the majority of our schools want to move forward, then we want to provide that opportunity.

“As we have said previously, our member schools provide our student-athletes with the safest possible environment to participate. If we were to delay, students would find opportunities to compete in sports through non-school programs that may not be focused on safety and are not education-based.”