Fans won’t be allowed at hockey state final

Only family of players to be at Open contests

Postseason games in high school basketball and hockey are still on the docket. There just won’t be anyone on hand to witness the final steps taken in the push for a championship.

Not that there wasn’t any confusion, mind you, before the day ended. For much of the afternoon, it was believed that no fans would be allowed to attend the two hockey championship series that are scheduled to begin Friday night at URI’s Boss Arena. Ditto for when the semifinals and finals in the R.I. Open State Tournament take place on March 21-22 at the Ryan Center, which is also on the URI campus.

Shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday, the R.I. Interscholastic League issued the following statement that seemed to contradict earlier reports: “The URI COVID-19 update posted by the University of Rhode Island that stated fans will be prohibited from attending and only players, coaches, and essential staff of the teams will be authorized to attend the upcoming RIIL hockey and basketball tournament games being held at URI was inaccurate and premature.”

Earlier Wednesday before the RIIL’s statement, URI announced that followers of their favorite interscholastic team would not be allowed to sit in the stands as champions are crowned at the Ryan Center and Boss Arena. That decision came not long after Governor Gina Raimondo’s message which urged all Rhode Islanders to not attend or organize events of more than 250 people over the next two weeks.

At 5:19 p.m. Wednesday, a final resolution concerning the hockey community emerged when Mount St. Charles took to Twitter and posted that no fans will be allowed to attend this weekend’s hockey finals at Boss Arena. The news was confirmed by a Mount school official. The second-seeded Mounties are scheduled to face top seed La Salle in the D-I finals. The D-II finals features No. 3 seed South Kingstown taking on No. 4 seed East Greenwich.

Schools that are scheduled to host state tournament basketball games on Thursday night are taking matters into their own hands.

At East Providence, coronavirus concerns have resulted in limiting tickets to family members of players and coaches for the Townies’ home game against Lincoln. No tickets will be sold at the door. The Tolman boys basketball team received 35 tickets from Bishop Hendricken, which announced that Thursday’s game will only be played before essential personnel and parents of the student-athletes.

At 7:19 p.m. Wednesday, the Twitter account run by the Cumberland High athletic department announced that no students will be allowed to attend Thursday’s girls’ basketball Round of 16 game against North Kingstown. Each player and coach will be allowed two tickets that are to be used by adults to attend the game.

Looking ahead to the Elite Eight state basketball playoff games that are scheduled for Sunday, it’s possible that the boys won’t be heading to CCRI-Warwick as was originally planned. It’s possible that the quarterfinal games could take place on school sites – a suggestion that was mentioned when RIIL leaders met with athletic directors on Wednesday morning.

As of right now, the girls’ Elite Eight games are slated to be held at Rhode Island College.