MCC coach backs call to cancel sports
There is a push in the Valley’s community college circles to save athletics for the 2020-21 school year.
Last week, the presidents of the 10 Maricopa County Community College District recommended suspending athletics for the school year because of the spiking COVID-19 infections in Arizona.
As of Friday afternoon, through change.org, more than 16,000 signatures were collected on an online petition to stop Maricopa County community college athletics from being canceled for the 2020-21 season.
Two virtual community platforms have been set up for Monday and Tuesday at 5 p.m., each day, by the MCCCD for people to raise questions and concerns over the recommendation.
Most local community college coaches The Arizona Republic reached out to did not return messages.
But Mesa Community College men’s basketball coach Sam Ballard was outspoken in his comments, supporting this recommendation in the midst of a pandemic with spiking coronavirus infections.
“We have two fundamental problems that no one seems to be able to address to the point where I would say it is OK to resume normal activities,” Ballard said. “First, there is a deadly and highly contagious virus among us right now that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Second, there is no vaccine.
“I have asked for plans to be put forward on what will be the protocol as a coach when players become infected. It is not a question of if, really, but when. We are in a big spike right now and according to medical experts, the fall and winter will more than likely produce a second, more dangerous wave. If the flu is any indicator, most of my players don’t get flu shots and we can’t require them to do so, and subsequently several are infected each year.”
Last season, his 12th leading the Thunderbirds, Ballard said that half of his team had the flu at one point or another.
“I don’t want to be infected,” said Ballard, the former Phoenix Mountain Pointe High School head coach who played for legendary coach Royce Youree at East High. “With COVID-19, my players and I won’t have that option.
“Junior colleges are already strapped for money and the athletic programs operate on a shoestring, so we will absolutely not have the resources of pro sports or the NCAA Division I programs to test, to trace, and to potentially quarantine our athletes.”
Last week, Grand Canyon University men’s basketball players began a 14-day quarantine on campus after positive coronavirus tests came back.
“What happened at Grand Canyon University with their basketball players would be potentially disastrous at the community college level,” Ballard said. “High schools will tragically find this out, as well, I’m afraid, as they continue to rush back out there.
“Even the (Arizona Interscholastic Association) is having second thoughts. Somewhere in America, someone has to be the first to recognize that at most levels, it cannot be business as usual in athletics with a deadly virus and no vaccine. I applaud the MCCCD presidents for being that group and I hope they stick to their guns despite the mounting public pressure. It was public pressure that put our new COVID-19 case numbers in Arizona at the top of the list nationally.”
Ballard said that at MCC in the fall term, students will be required to wear masks at all times while on campus.
“Can you imagine a student wearing a mask walking by the gym and then looking in to see other students playing basketball, a most non-social distancing activity?” Ballard said. “What are they to think? That we have some special immunity or that we have all the resources for testing and quarantining? We don’t.”
Ballard wishes everybody would buy into wearing masks and social distance in public to reduce the spread of the virus.
“And coaches who preach great values like togetherness, caring for teammates, and a unified approach to solving problems, now is the time that we have to walk the talk,” Ballard said. “This is Team Humanity.
“I have seen nothing that tells me that there is any plan at the junior college level to tackle what surely will happen if we rush to get back out there. Students will get infected. Any plan should include testing, monitoring, social distancing (impossible in basketball), tracing, quarantining, and what to do when an entire team is unable to compete for 14 days during the middle of a season.
“If I see a plan that makes sense, I will change my position. Otherwise, what are we doing?”