RETURN TO NORMAL?

All players will start the season having to wear masks but after the fall semester ends, schools can allow vaccinated players to not wear them during games.

Once students are dismissed for the winter holiday break, schools may begin to use the revised masking rules for the winter sports season. Each school district will have different rules about masks in games with some still requiring them.

As for getting all a team’s games in with a full varsity roster? For that, we will have to wait and see.

Last season, some teams were put in quarantine and missed games while other teams were forced to send sub-varsity teams to compete in varsity contests.

Notre Dame-Fairfield’s lone loss last season came to Masuk after the Lancers found out just before they boarded the bus that the varsity players were quarantined and sophomores and freshmen were forced to play.

Most teams played between 12-15 games last winter including league conference tournaments.

Few teams made It through the entire winter without missing some time.

For those that played, the specter of a COVID-19 shutdown loomed every day as coached feared the call or email telling them the season was being paused.

— Scott Ericson