LEXINGTON, Ky.- In a time where wearing masks, social distancing and virtual learning are considered ‘normal,’ students in middle and high school today are facing limited options for in-person social interaction. One of those few opportunities that remain is school sports, but even athletics have a new ‘normal’ due to COVID-19.
Similar to many other districts around the country, Fayette County Public Schools are taking extensive precautions to limit and prevent the spread of the Coronavirus while allowing for the continuation of athletics. Some of the many precautionary measures currently in place include: temperature checks at the entrance of sports events, socially distanced sidelines and stands, sign-in sheets for contract tracing, transportation restrictions, limits on the number of spectators allowed at each event, and strict mask requirements for players, coaches and spectators.
“The girls had to wear masks to and from the games, to and from practice and we had to wear masks during the games,” said Summer Gossett, a parent of two volleyball players at Jessie Clark Middle School. “If we took our mask off at all we would be asked to leave, they were really strict about it, the administration would stay in the gym and just watch the parents.”
Mask requirements are only a small portion of the added responsibilities for parents this year. For many working families, COVID regulations have posed challenges to participating in sports, especially when it comes to transportation to and from events.
“In Fayette County, kids are not allowed to carpool,” said Lisa Hager, the assistant athletic director at Henry Clay High School. “That’s been difficult for people, and I think … from a socio-economic status, it’s hurting a little bit because kids who typically don’t have reliable transportation are already at school at the end of the day. They can either just stay for a study hall or a team meal and go straight to the game. Now, they’re not here, so they have to get here, and that’s been problematic. You cannot use busses, so any school that wants to go to away games and wants to be together on a bus has to hire a chartered bus, which is very expensive.”
Parents who are used to relying on the school to provide dinner and transportation for games now find themselves relying on other parents, which violates new safety guidelines.
“You have to take work off early, feed them early, couldn’t take any of their friends,” Gossett said. “You have to rely on other parents and kind of sneak around that rule, be like ‘Can you take her? Can you pick her up?’ because so many parents were working.”
Due to the limited number of people allowed in a given space, many middle school sports teams are having to cut a greater number of players during tryouts.
“We still had the A and B, or the seventh and eighth grade team, and we normally would have a sixth-grade team but they cut sixth grade, there was no sixth grade whatsoever,” said Rubin Jones, the athletic director at Morton Middle School. “If you were a good sixth grader then you made the B team or the A team, otherwise, where we would have kept some sixth graders, they probably didn’t get to play.”
These decreases in team size were difficult for many student athletes because, in some cases, this limited selection meant cutting individuals who were previously on the team.
“The teams could only take so many girls per team, it was like 10 or less … and girls that were on the team last year didn’t make it this year because they couldn’t take as many,” Gossett said. “That was hard because two of her friends didn’t make the team, which was really sad.”
Fayette County Public Schools are doing their best to maintain normalcy for student athletes despite the current restrictions.
“We had the eighth-grade recognition night like the first or second game of the season in case the season got cut short,” Jones said.
Coaches are even utilizing virtual tools to prepare and connect their players while limiting unnecessary in-person contact. Many teams are using platforms such as GroupMe, Twitter and TeamSnap to circulate information and facilitate conversations. Some schools, like Morton Middle School are also having virtual tryouts for sports such as cheerleading. Other coaches are coming up with creative ideas to push out training content online.
“I had a conversation with the wrestling coach earlier and he said that he is using Canvas to push out videos to his wrestlers,” Hager said. “Right now they’re in off season so he’s like ‘hey, here’s a tactical move, I want you to work on this positioning,’ and he’s using blackboard. He created a class in blackboard with his wrestling players on it.”
Some schools are increasingly thankful to have had virtual programs previously in place that allow for teams to bond and student athletes to grow. One of these programs is the Henry Clay High School leadership club, Athletes for Aspire, which connects current student athletes with former graduates involved in college sports.
“We meet twice a month and we pick two athletes from each sport that are in season at that time and we zoom,” Hager said. “Kids get a chance to ask ‘What is college like? What was recruitment like? How are you a leader?’ … That actually got started last year but it’s been a blessing because it’s something we have had in place for this year that’s been fun to connect with kids.”
Concerns regarding the ability to implement COVID-safe protocols are only growing as the year progresses, particularly for indoor winter sports.
“Volleyball you could be somewhat socially distanced on the court, it was low contact,” Jones said. “With basketball it’s high contact, and right now cases are going up, so we may be in jeopardy of losing girls and boys basketball.”
Despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, parents and faculty agree that the risks of maintaining athletics can be worth the rewards.
“I think it’s really important for that in-person socialization and then for our physical health on top of that,” Hager said. “If we’re isolated and our parents are at work and we’re lazy kids, we’re playing Xbox all day. My son, the only reason why he gets out of the house is to go play football at Morton, and it’s just a blessing that he’s had that. If we want to protect our health against flu season and COVID and everything that’s coming, it’s important that we keep our physical health up and that we’re exercising. Those things are proven, people who are in better shape are having more success with COVID.”
Although Hager sees these benefits of in-person athletics, she remains realistic regarding concerns about the virus.
“My greatest fear is that somebody would be asymptomatic and carry the virus back to a family member who would then pass, it is serious,” Hager said. “How do you balance that? Is the risk worth the reward? But I also feel like, you can go to Kroger and contact it, or church … we can’t stop living.”
Families are hopeful that sports will be able to continue throughout the year, however, even with all the precautions in place, fear is ever-present.
“There’s always that fear that they could get sick, there’s the fear that somebody on their team could get sick and spread it to everybody, that it can get shut down and then they have nothing,” Gossett said. “That would kill their inner spirit, to take something that they love so much away from them when so much has already been taken away from us.”
A complete list of the rules and regulations for various Kentucky school sports can be found on the KHSAA website.
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