The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Mayfield to resume sports
Sports are back at Mayfield High School.
On Aug. 2, Superintendent Keith Kelly sent a letter to the Mayfield community informing families practices will resume as the district’s legal counsel deemed the Ohio Department of Health order superseded Cuyahoga County’s recommendation that led to the school postponing sports.
“This is an example of what happens when no one in Columbus can make a decision,” said Mayfield athletic director Keith Leffler. “It puts all the pressure on superintendents and school boards to have to make these decisions when they’re not really medical experts.”
The past few days have been an emotional roller coaster for the school’s athletes.
Coach Ross Bandiera’s attention July 31 diverted from preparing for Mayfield’s first football practice the next day to wondering if the Wildcats would even take the field during the fall season.
Mayfield City Schools announced the district will only offer remote online learning for
the first nine weeks of the school year, in line with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health’s recommendation handed down earlier that day. By virtue of the decision, extracurricular activities and sports season were canceled effective immediately.
Bandiera called the 48 hours between announcements depressing, but sensed the relief felt by his student-athletes and fellow coaches to begin practice.
“They’re jacked up man, they’re jacked up,” said Bandiera. “We had meetings on Friday, I met with the seniors Friday night. People were upset and they’re seeing all these other teams practicing. I was upset about losing some of our kids, just a bunch of different things. I know it’s hard to transfer but it definitely crossed the kids’ minds, like ‘Hey, we’re not playing football here and we want to play football.’”
Kelly’s letter noted resuming practices does not guarantee seasons will take place, and that participation in activities is a choice.
Leffler said Mayfield will take a day to organize before beginning practices for all sports on Aug. 4. The Wildcats football team will be on the field at 7 a.m.
Leffler expressed gratitude toward his coaches and administrators in working to help Mayfield’s athletic programs begin practice, but noted everyone must be prepared to pivot again if guidelines change.
Mayfield’s suspension of athletics posed a serious concern for the remaining seven teams in the Western Reserve Conference. If Brush, located nearby also in Cuyahoga County, opted to suspend athletics, the remaining WRC teams would’ve faced challenges pertaining to scheduling and competition.
A WRC superintendents meeting is set for Aug. 5. Vagueries at the state level create complications for conferences, like the WRC, which has schools located in multiple counties making separate decisions under differing guidelines.
“This is the case for all counties,” said Leffler, “we’ve been told all along that we should be taking our guidance from our local boards of health. So we are, but then when your conference is in three counties and we’re all in different situations — that’s the case in most conferences — that’s the challenge in all of this.
“Whose directive do you take? At least in this case, the legal counsel’s opinion is the Ohio Department of Health supersedes the Cuyahoga County Board of Health so we’re going to follow these guidelines until we get new ones.”
Leffler noted the decision to let athletics resume was made independently of learning plans. The district will still open the 2020-21 school year with at least nine weeks of remote learning.
Football, soccer, volleyball, cross country, girls tennis and golf will all begin practice Aug. 4. Bandiera is grateful to Kelly and Mayfield’s administration for moving to allow extracurricular activities to occur.
“My big thing is either let us all play or don’t let any of us play,” Bandiera said. “Make a decision. I thought Dr. Kelly had (guts) enough to make a decision, which I was proud of his leadership on that. But it shouldn’t have to come from him, it should come from someone down at the state where they say, ‘Hey, let’s do this and let’s do it or let’s not and let’s not do it.’”
The Wildcats are coming off an 11-1 football season that ended in a narrow loss to Archbishop Hoban in a Division II regional semifinal. The volleyball team went 16-8 in 2019 and returns many key pieces from last season’s rotation, including senior outside hitter Megan Kocsis.
Mayfield’s girls soccer team is the defending Mentor District champion. The Wildcats girls cross country team advanced to the regional meet last year while senior Max Rollins was an individual qualifier on the boys side.
The football team held three days of camp July 2729 and Bandiera expects the Wildcats won’t be bothered by the additional time off. After many teams began workouts Aug. 1, he’s grateful Mayfield’s student-athletes will be able to practice, too.
“That’s the biggest thing for me man and mostly for the kids, they deserve it,” Bandiera said. “They worked too hard to watch their buddies down the street play and us not.”