Time to drop remaining youth sports ban to let us play

With sweat pouring down my face, my teammates and I fought for the MCAL title, a trophy every high school soccer player in Marin dreams of winning.

The rush of adrenaline fueled my body through 130 minutes of play on a cold Friday night in February 2020. At the end of it all, the Redwood High School girls soccer team came away with a hard-earned victory.

As I dogpiled on top of my teammates, brimming with joy, I was clueless to the fact this feeling would be absent from my life for an entire year. All 22 girls on the field fought like it was their last game. Unfortunately it was.

Here we are, a year later, and restrictions on youth sports are just beginning to be rolled back. Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom joined the California Department of Public Health to clear the way for counties with 14 cases or fewer per 100,000 people to resume outdoor competitive sports.

While a step in the right direction, Newsom’s announcement feels like a political compromise to appease a frustrated contingent, as indoor sports and out-of-state competition are still banned. Moreover, only half of the state’s counties currently meet the guidelines to resume competitive sports. Ultimately, the new regulations laid out by Newsom and the CDPH remain overly restrictive, and the fine print creates a black box of uncertainty for athletes hoping to return to play.

Certainly, the toll exacted by COVID-19 should not be trivialized, yet Newsom’s decision to continue to restrict certain aspects of competitive youth sports flies in the face of compelling evidence suggesting that, with proper safeguards, even socalled “high risk” youth sports constitute a low risk to Californians.

Newsom proudly stated last week: “We’ve been looking at data and science … and we are now confident … we can get youth sports running again.” But the reality is that the science has been there for nearly a year and allows for far more than Newsom’s “compromise” offers.

While children generally do not experience adverse reactions from COVID-19 and have a nearly 100% survival rate, proponents of California’s restrictions on youth sports have consistently highlighted the dangers children present as potential carriers.

However, as a study conducted by researchers at Switzerland’s Geneva University Hospital exemplifies, children 18 or younger have accounted for less than 2% of the overall infection rate since the pandemic began and “do not seem to be a major vector of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.”

Perhaps the most comprehensive study to date on the risks of youth sports to the community was conducted by researchers from the University of Wisconsin alongside the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

The study, which sampled over 30,000 athletes who had participated in more than

4,000 competitive games during the pandemic, found only 271 cases among student-athletes. While household contact (55%) and community contact (40.7%) made up nearly 96% of transmissions, sports contact contributed to a mere 0.5% of cases.

In light of such evidence, any prohibition on youth sports appears dubious. What’s more, California’s case count has been elevated throughout much of the pandemic, casting additional doubts about the prior ban’s effectiveness to curb the virus’ spread.

In fact, California’s regulations have likely made a bad situation worse, detrimentally impacting children’s mental health.

As part of the University of Wisconsin study, sports medicine specialist Andrew Watson conducted a mental health survey of over 13,000 adolescent athletes. Watson noted “40% reported moderate to severe depression symptoms and 37% reported moderate to severe anxiety,” especially worrisome given children’s limited ability to socialize with peers in an era of remote-learning and lockdowns.

With proper protocols in place, scientific data continues to suggest that all forms of competitive youth sports should be allowed throughout the state. From masks and temperature checks to improved ventilation systems and testing, the ways to protect today’s young athletes are endless.

While “low risk” outdoor sports like golf are more pandemic-friendly, even “high risk,” close-contact sports like wrestling can be modified to safely allow for some competition.

It’s time for California to reconsider the remaining bans on youth sports and let us play.