The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Teams get an opportunity to practice, but questions remain
Michael Huss could barely believe his eyes.
The senior quarterback from Mayfield probably pinched himself a few times to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
After all, just a day earlier, Huss was dejected and depressed sitting at home while football teams around the area hit the field for the first day of fall practice.
Yet at the request of the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, Mayfield — and a slew of other county schools — had suspended all fall extra-curricular activities. So while other schools practiced, Huss and his teammates sat and sulked.
But that dejection turned to euphoria on Aug. 2, when Mayfield superintendent Keith Kelly issued an email in response to the Ohio Dept. of Health’s mandate — released late on Aug. 1 — that practices for contact and non-contact sports could re-open.
“Per our district legal counsel the ODH order supersedes the recommendation of the County Board of Health with respect to athletics and extra-curriculars only,” wrote Kelly. “Therefore, all practices will resume.”
Huss’ heart leaped. “I’m surprised. I wasn’t expecting anything that quick,” Huss said of the reverse of field that will allow him and his teammates — and other athletes in the school — to head back to practice this week. It’s really exciting.”
It’s also a big swing of momentum that reverses the course of action in Cuyahoga County and other areas around that state that had, as of late last week, suspended or cancelled fall sports because of COVID-19.
Mayfield was the first to state the Ohio Dept. of Health supersedes the county health dept.
It’s pretty safe to say Mayfield won’t be the last.
Players, coaches and school districts have been itching for a reason — any mandate, ruling or even a small loophole — that would allow them to get back to some sense of normalcy with the fall season starting.
The Ohio Dept. of Health provided that with their late-night order on Aug. 1.
Of course there’s a catch.
We’ll call them “conditions” of re-opening.
• Non-contact and contact sports may practice. Non-contact sports (golf, tennis, volleyball, cross country) may compete against other teams.
• If there is a season, contact sports (football, soccer) cannot compete against other teams unless
all players, coaches, trainers, and support personnel receive negative COVID tests 72 hours prior to competition. One positive test in the group prevents that team from competing.
• The OHSAA is not allowing scrimmages at this time for contact sports such as football and soccer.
• Spectators are not permitted at contact sporting events.
• This order expires if the Governor declares the State of Emergency is over or the order is rescinded by the ODH.
So what does that all mean?
First, the non-contact sports of golf, tennis and volleyball can practice, scrimmage and compete against other teams as usual.
Contact sports — i.e. football and soccer — can practice and scrimmage only against themselves.
Before any games can happen, everyone involved — players, coaches, trainers, staff, etc — need to be tested within 72 hours of a contest. Easy peezy, right? Uh, not really.
Said Keith Kelly in his email re-opening fall sports, “You should also know this: If there were to be a fall season, I estimate that in order to run a full schedule of football and boys/girls soccer, there would be $240,000$250,000 in COVID-19 testing costs at $150 a test. We have yet to determine how these fees will be paid.”
That’s a quarter-million dollars for the fall season alone.
For one district. Certainly, there are smaller schools than Mayfield, which fields a Division II football team and Division I boys and girls soccer teams.
There are also much larger schools than Mayfield that are going to have to cough up $150 — Kelly’s estimation — per studentathlete tested.
How are cash-strapped school districts going to pay for that?
Even if it is put back to the individual families, will parents be able to pay $1,500 for their child to be tested every week of a 10-game football season? Shudder at the costs of a family with two or three kids playing football or soccer and their teams all make a deep tournament run.
Are test results guaranteed to be returned within 72 hours? With such a potentially massive influx of testing to get players on a field, would there be a backlog?
All good questions. A source told The NewsHerald the OHSAA wants to remove the verbiage regarding the mandate of COVID-19 testing within 72 hours of competition.
If school versus school competition isn’t approved by Sept. 4, which is the current deadline set by the OHSAA, then fall sports and the remaining winter and spring sports will move to a condensed schedule.
So a lot remains up in the air.
But as of right now, the Mayfield football team — and maybe many others, if they choose to do so — have an avenue to go against the county health board that allows them to start up their fall sports.
If verbiage doesn’t change and the ODH still mandates COVID-19 tests for everyone involved within 72 hours of competition, it’s going to be a very expensive autumn for somebody.
In short, fall sports in Ohio is moving forward.
But there are still plenty of eggshells to keep an eye on while on that path.
Kampf can be reached via email at JKampf@NewsHerald.com; On Twitter @NHPreps and @JKBuckeyes