The right call to put off winter sports

It was never going to be easy to find a way to hold winter sports in Connecticut high schools this year. Even if COVID counts had stayed low, the obstacles were likely to have been too high. But that doesn’t make the decision to put off the season easy. This has become a familiar debate in this year of the coronavirus. It started when spring seasons were cut short at the pandemic’s outset, much to the consternation of legions of protesting student-athletes and coaches. It continued with a long-running discussion over whether it was safe to hold a football season this fall, with the debate taking a number of turns before ending in a place that left almost no one happy.

Now the focus has shifted to winter sports such as basketball and ice hockey, by definition held indoors. The state high school sports governing body, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, said it would postpone all winter sports activity until Jan. 19, according to email sent to state athletic directors Tuesday morning that was later confirmed by CIAC on its website. It’s the right call at a time of growing COVID danger.

But we shouldn’t underestimate or dismiss the disappointment that will necessarily greet this decision. Sports matters to a lot of people, students and adults, and the window to play them competitively could be limited to a few short years. There’s no making up for time lost.

This is a delay, not a cancellation, meaning there’s hope still that seasons could be played and all that could change would be timing. Given the way this year has gone, though, and even at a time of increased optimism over a vaccine’s arrival in the next few months, most people will believe it when they see it.

Indoor sports present dangers that are at least somewhat mitigated in their outdoor counterparts. There’s no social distancing on a basketball court, and the idea of playing in a mask is not going to work. Even keeping spectators away wouldn’t be enough, and it’s not like high school students could enter into some NBA-style bubble where their movements could be monitored at all times. There are too many variables to make anyone comfortable.

Connecticut was in a good place on keeping the coronavirus under control for many months, but like much of the rest of the country, the numbers have gone back up recently. That’s led an increasing number of school districts to back away from inperson learning and toward remote schooling, with some towns announcing e-learning only from now until sometime in 2021. As cases rise and teachers and students are forced to quarantine, it simply doesn’t make sense to maintain in-person schedules at a growing number of schools.

Given that, it would be hard to justify holding sports seasons as usual. Everyone involved will have to hope for improved conditions in a few months to get some games in. Until then, this will be chalked up as one more loss in a year that has had more than its share of losses already.

As cases rise and teachers and students are forced to quarantine, it simply doesn’t make sense to maintain in-person schedules at a growing number of schools.