Area schools forced to put spring sports on hold
Area high schools put spring season on hold in wake of pandemic
Monday ought to mark the start of the second week of high school spring sports practice. Instead, Kingston High and every school in the Mid-Hudson Athletic League find themselves sidelined.
The spread of the coronavirus pandemic has led to schools in Ulster, Dutchess and Orange counties shuttering for at least the next two weeks.
“We know that nothing is going to happen for at least two weeks on both sides of the river,” MHAL Coordinator Dennis Burkett
said. “It is my understanding that there will be no practices and, obviously, no contests for at least two weeks and to be determined after that.”
Ulster and Orange counties ordered schools to be closed until March 30 along with no extracurricular activities. That means teams will not be allowed to practice.
At the recommendation of the Dutchess County Department of Behavioral and Community Health, Dutchess County district superintendents agreed to allow teams to practice after the current two-week moratorium, but not participate in interscholastic
games through April.
“Practice is okay, hopefully when school comes back, but no games, contests or scrimmages basically until May 1,” said MHAL President Tom Cassata, who is also the Red Hook Director of Athletics.
Even if the Ulster County schools (Kingston, New Paltz, Saugerties, Wallkill, Highland, Marlboro, Rondout Valley, Ellenville and Onteora) were to resume practice on March 30, the spring season will be disarray. Nearly half of the MHAL (Red Hook, Rhinebeck, Roosevelt, Pine Plains, Spackenkill, Millbrook, Dover and Webutuck) are Dutchess County schools and are under the May 1 edict.
And if Kingston is able to get back to action, some of the Tigers’ opponents in Orange County have extended their hiatuses. Goshen is closed until April 13 and Warwick, Valley Central and Washingtonville are closed until April 14.
“We could theoretically have four different decisions made by superintendents in Section 9,” said Burkett, noting that the section has schools in four counties, including Sullivan.
“They didn’t want gatherings outside of school of 20 or more people,” Burkett said of what Dutchess County might do. “Now, where I have trouble reining in my athletic directors, is I tried to explain to them that when these decisions are made athletics is a very, very small part of the decision. They’re thinking about proms, plays, the debate club, mock trial and on and on and on.
“I will say this as an aside. I think we would be foolish to think that that’s the end of it. That’s just what it is right now. The reason I’m surmising this is that if we go back to just a mere 72 to 96 hours ago,” said Burkett, thinking about the scramble early last week when regional basketball games were postponed, moved, then played in empty gyms as the coronavirus concern dramatically increased. In the end, the state tournament was indefinitely postponed.
“I experienced a little of this. I was on the basketball committee and that was a whirlwind of four days,” Cassata said. “It’s just continuing in a different way.”
“We were in a totally different environment,” Burkett remarked. “We were working with rescheduling regional games and having no fans. We went from there to basically ending the tournament.”
“As I told my staff today (Friday), this is changing by the day,” Cassata said, “so by the end of the month it could be totally different.”
“It could be extended,” Burkett said. “Individual districts could make it even more stringent.”