Prep sports pose an unacceptable COVID-19 risk

Bay Area coaches, players and parents are understandably upset about school officials’ and county public health officers’ reluctance to resume high school sports. The coaches, players and parents have invested time, energy and financial resources into an activity that enhances the overall high school experience.

But maintaining the region’s health and ending the coronavirus threat must be our primary goals. Everything else is secondary.

The risk the pandemic poses to participants and those they come in contact with remains too great for those playing higher-risk sports, including football and basketball. That’s especially true given that new variants of the virus are spreading throughout California with the potential to be even more contagious and more deadly. Medical professionals also remain uncertain as to the long-term health effects for youth who have contracted the coronavirus.

President Joe Biden, Gov. Gavin Newsom and our top scientists have talked repeatedly about the need to wear masks and practice social distancing — period. Playing high school sports flouts that basic safety precaution without the necessary medical, testing and contact-tracing support being employed by professional and college teams.

The NFL has reportedly invested $75 million in its efforts to keep players, coaches, staff members and their families safe. But the Baltimore Ravens placed 37 different players on the list during the season. All told, the NFL listed more than 300 players — including at least one player from every team — on the league’s COVID-19 injured reserve list. NBA and NHL teams are experiencing similar outbreaks. How can high school programs without on-site medical personnel hope to protect players, coaches and their families from contracting the virus when professional teams cannot meet that standard?

School officials need to remember that professional players are adults making minimum salaries of $610,000 and have the means to immediately quarantine themselves if necessary. Most high school programs do not have any medical personnel on staff and must rely on coaches with little or no training to make daily judgments on crucial safety protocols.

Newsom’s announcement Monday ending stay-at-home orders throughout the state opened the door to a potential resumption of high school sports. The state’s various sections are working on providing the framework for teams to resume playing. Santa Clara County put a damper on those goals Tuesday in a meeting between county officials and school superintendents, but then reversed itself Wednesday evening.

Santa Clara County had introduced new measures saying competing teams must be kept in separate rooms and outdoors and at least 25 feet apart. Participants on the same team would have been required to keep six feet apart, which would have, in effect been a ban on all sports. But the county said Wednesday that it would rescind the restrictions to match its youth sports guidelines with those from the state Department of Public Health.

Caution is still in order. Santa Clara County Counsel James Williams cited an AAU basketball tournament in Rocklin that led to about 100 COVID-19 cases, including 77 in Santa Clara County. The Centers for Disease Control issued a new report on Tuesday that uncovered two December high school wrestling tournaments in Florida where 30 percent of the 130 athletes, coaches and referees who participated were diagnosed with the virus. One adult later died.

High school sports programs have a lot to offer to their schools and their participants. But the high-risk nature of the majority of the sports does not merit resuming competition in the midst of a deadly pandemic that continues to plague the Bay Area and California.