GREAT BLUE STREAK PROJECT
Fall Sports set to return with student-athlete’s safety paramount
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY » Last spring, student-athletes held onto the hope that they might have a season right up to the end, when Governor Cuomo announced that schools would not reopen for the remainder of the academic year.
It has now been six months since schools were first shutdown and things have changed quite a bit. Schools are reopening and some sports are approved to begin play on September 21.
“I can probably speak for all of the AD’s in the league when I say that I was starting to get a little anxious about what the decision would be, maybe even losing a little bit of hope,” said Saratoga Springs Athletic Director, Nick McPartland.
“Once we received the guidance that we can move forward with some of our fall sports, I think everyone was excited for the chance to get some of our teams back together. Our coaches are excited to get back working with our athletes and now try to salvage some form of a fall season.”
McPartland spend a good portion of the summer plan
ning and speculating about ways to provide a return to sports for the Blue Streaks, although there was only so much that could be done with so much uncertain.
“There’s only so much you can do until you know if you’re going to have a season,” he said. “There’s a lot of variables, a lot of factors, but I think we’re all excited to take on the challenge of getting a fall season safely off the ground. We know that there’s still a lot of work to do.” STUDENT SAFETY Playing any sport naturally presents some sort of risk to injury. With the exception of concussions in football, that risk is rarely discussed. Now, the threat of coronavirus will dominate much of the conversation on how safe the return to interscholastic athletics actually is.
“The priority is going to be student safety and that’s both academically during in classroom instruction and maintaining that level of safety for athletics,” McPartland said. “An outbreak could shut everything down. We’re going to do our best to mitigate risk. I don’t know that you can completely eliminate it, but the same can be said about the risk of injuries while playing sports.”
Currently, falls sports like soccer, cross country, and golf are approved to begin competitive play, while sports like football, volleyball and cheer are only allowed to practice, while following restrictive social distancing guidelines.
Even though not all may sports may play games this fall, McPartland said registration has been opened for all of Saratoga’s fall sport programs.
“It might be a game-time decision if a certain sport is going to be treat the fall like an offseason or if they’re going to be starting practice or preparing for a competitive schedule,” he said. “If our football coaches and volleyball coaches want to move forwards with practices, we’ll certainly support them in doing so. I’m looking forward to guidance from NYSPHSAA, on what their plans are if those seasons don’t happen this fall.” NO LONGER JUNIORS All across the country, high school juniors watched as seniors got some of the best moments of their time in high school taken away from them. From proms and graduation ceremonies, to the final season of spring sports, those seniors are now beginning the next journey in their lives, while the Class of 2021 is hoping that they don’t have the same fate.
“We are going to have a number of senior football players and volleyball players, as well as a number of senior cheer athletes as well. Having that hope still out there for these kids I think is really important and I’m hopeful that we can roll out all of our sports programs this year,” McPartland said. “Having the opportunity to practice means we haven’t shut the door on those sports, so I’m excited about that.”
Saratoga’s Athletic Director continued, discussing the overall benefits of having sports.
“Maintaining that level of hope that there is going to be some sort of season is so important for so many different reasons. The school day is going to look very different from what it has in the past and for so many students and sports is a real hook for them just to want to come to school everyday,” he said
“If they have an opportunity to practice and be with their teammates after school, I think that helps kids get through the school day and is really important for their mental health, obviously their physical health and that socialization that takes place is so important for kids to be able to maintain that.”
McPartland admitted that the biggest challenge schools and the athletic community faces in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is that there is no playbook on dealing with a pandemic. Although they do now have some experience from how everything was handled last fall.
That doesn’t make tough decisions any easier though.
“Being able to make the proper decisions as certain things come up at a moments notice is going to be so important,” McPartland said. “I’m sure the juniors were very observant about what the seniors had to go through last spring and I’m confident that they’re not going to take anything for granted.”
TRANSPORTATION & EQUAL ACCESS
In the most recent guidance released by
NYSPHSAA, the governing body of high school athletics in New York outlines how students may return to sports, whether or not they actually attend classes in school.
“A pupil shall be eligible for interschool competition or inclusive athletic activities in a sport during a semester, provided that he is a bona fide student,” the statement read.
This includes students who attend school in-person full time, take classes on a hybrid schedule or are fully remote. This is a different from last spring, when NYSPHSAA maintained the requirement that students be “in-school” in order for athletics to take place.
As issue that arises with students on a hybrid or fully remote schedule is transportation to and from the school for sports.
“In a traditional year, kids just stay after school for practice. We have some students that will be hybrid students and some that are going to be fully remote. It’s really going to take a team effort. Coaches, teachers, administrators, parents are going to have to do our best and the district is going to do everything it can to provide a setting that allows as many kids to be involved as possible.” McPartland said.
“More than likely we will have to rely on students making arrangements with their parents and working with their families to get to practice if they’re not in school that day.”
He continued, speaking about the coaching side of this issue.
“We expect our coaches to be flexible to really put the student’s situation first and to understand that some students might have a bit more of a difficult time getting to school that day if they’re not starting their day there.”
Another situation that could present itself is student-athletes wanting to participate in an approved sports, if it looks like their initially desired sport is not approved to play games.
“That’s a legitimate scenario that we could be dealing with since it’s not looking too promising for some of those sports right now,” McPartland said. “I would really encourage the kids to make the decision that’s going to make them the most happy. We’re definitely going to have some kids that might consider another sport that they have an interest in and we would certainly support that. They should do what they are going to enjoy the most.”
GREAT OUTDOORS PROJECT
Sports are going to look more different then they ever have before at Saratoga Springs High School. That is partly due to the pandemic, although the new turf fields will give the Blue Streaks a whole new playing experience.
“The turf project, along with the other projects going on as part of the Great Outdoors Project, is one of the more positive situations to come out of school being closed in the spring,” McPartland said. “We had all this construction scheduled and it allowed for that to go on relatively unphased. They didn’t have to work around students arriving or departing for the day or spring sports being on-site.”
With so much uncertainty having surrounded high school sports for over half of the year, the new playing surface for athletes seems like the light at the end of the tunnel for student-athletes at Saratoga High School.
“The turf looks beautiful and I can’t wait to get our students out there, whether it’s in PE class or our athletic programs at the school or in the community. We are really looking forward to being able to showcase the field. We’re really lucky to have it.”