School sports plans don’t go far enough

Everyone wants to see a school year that’s as close to normal as possible. Children need the interaction with their peers, and teachers do what they do best in front of a classroom, not behind a computer screen. The benefits of in-person learning are many and varied.

But we also know it’s not that simple, not with the coronavirus pandemic continuing to rage around the country. Connecticut has done well in recent months keeping the number of new cases low, but there have been worrying rises recently in the Northeast, and safety precautions are being put into effect to keep everyone as healthy as possible.

Part of the normal school experience everyone would like to see return is sports. At whatever level, from elementary school gym class to competitive high schools, sports are an integral part of the scholastic experience, for participants and spectators, students and parents. But sports during an outbreak promises to be a different experience.

The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference on Friday released its plans for the fall season, which call for a delay in the start of practices and games and a limit on the number of games. COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and other health requirements would be conducted by school districts working with each district’s Department of Health, and it would be up to the districts to set limits on spectators.

Football would be limited to eight games, other sports 14.

It’s good to see the governing body making changes, but the truth is that they don’t go nearly far enough. If districts are taking so many steps to keep everyone socially distanced in the classroom, how does it make sense to send them out to take part in contact sports after school? There is no way to play football while maintaining a safe distance from others.

This doesn’t mean all sports must be canceled. Cross country could be run safely; maybe tennis, which is traditionally a spring sport, as well. Soccer would be more difficult — while there’s not as much contact as football, it’s impossible to keep players physically separated.

Professional sports are running into this problem,

For the children, there may be no replacing a lost season. But safety has to take the top priority, and contact sports are not part of that equation.

with Major League Baseball’s shortened season already facing a coronavirus crisis. Professional basketball is being played in a “bubble,” where players and coaches spend all their time in one place, not interacting with the outside world, to keep infection at bay. Schools don’t work like that.

Then there is the expense. At a time when all districts are going to be facing pressure to pay for COVID-related requirements, from Plexiglas barriers to better ventilation systems, it’s hard to justify the expense of sports that could only add to the danger. There is too much that schools will already have to do without.

No one likes the idea of up to a year without regular scholastic sports. For the children, there may be no replacing a lost season. But safety has to take the top priority, and contact sports are not part of that equation. The CIAC should reconsider its decision, or districts should take it upon themselves to make the sensible, unpopular decision to forego contact sports for the foreseeable future.