by Bruce Karnick

With all that is still unknown about COVID-19, schools around Minnesota and the Minnesota State High School League are having to make some very tough decisions. Schools face a litany of logistical issues around student and staff safety before they can even consider the challenges of educating our youth. With all the challenges schools are facing, why are we even worrying about school sports? Many studies have been done around how school activities such as sports, theater, music and so on play a vital role in student growth and overall performance in the classroom. Students simply do better when they have other activities to supplement their day. Learning still happens away from books, paper, and computer screens. The MSHSL understands this and the need for school athletics to continue. But how? How do sports continue in the midst of a pandemic? By being _exible

On Tuesday, August 4th, the MSHSL met for a long day of decision making. Many ideas kicked around, many votes taken, and decisions made. In the end, four fall sports remained. Girls Tennis, Boys and Girls Cross Country, Boys and Girls Soccer and Girls Swimming and Diving. Those teams can begin activities on August 17th with limitations. Football and Volleyball have been moved to the spring and the spring season will be modi_ed to allow multisport athletes the ability

to still play their normal fall and spring sports. Spring 1.0, Football and Volleyball will end May 15th and spring 2.0, normal spring sports, will start on May 15th and be done by July 15th. All sports will see changes. Here are some of the changes the MSHSL suggested. Fewer games and scrimmages, a possibility of no end of year playoffs/tournaments and limited to no fans in the stands would likely have the biggest impact on families.

After sorting through the MSHSL information, Friday we turned to Hastings High Schools Activities Director Trent Hanson. As you would expect, Mr. Hanson has been bombarded with communications and meetings since the MSHSL released their guidelines on Tuesday. He shared with us the 3-page statement sent to parents, students and staff in which the majority of the procedures they have in place as of August 7th, 2020 are explained.

General Directives Summary

Fall sports programs must abide by MSHSL, CDC, and MDH regulations. This will include:

•Student-athletes must wear masks at all times unless in actual training or competition.

•Coaches, of_cials, athletic trainers, and event staff must

wear masks at all times.

•De_ned cleaning and disinfecting of facilities and equipment must be implemented.

•Busses will only transport at limited capacity. Transportation capability for all levels for athletics is currently being reviewed.

•Athletes may only participate in de_ned pods.

•Spectator restrictions will be enforced.

•If HHS is required to be in a distance-learning mode only due to county and local COVID data, in-person school sports will not be allowed at that time. It is possible that seasons may start later that August 17, or start on time but then be interrupted mid-season.

•Practice times and protocols for what student-athletes are allowed or required to do “after school” is in development.

•No decisions about middle school sports have been made at this time. We hope to provide the same sports that will be offered at HHS. However, the actual framework is currently in development. HMS sports will not begin until in-person school is in session.

Sports Speci_c Summary Girls Tennis, Girls Swim and Dive, Boys and Girls Cross Country, Boys and Girls Soccer.

•Will have a fall season starting August 17th.

•20% reduction in number of weeks.

•30% reduction in number of contests.

•Maximum of 2 contests per week and those will be against MEC opponents only.

•No Scrimmages or tournaments.

•Soccer, Tennis and Swim/Dive may compete head to head only, 2 teams at the contest total.

•Cross Country may compete against 2 other teams, 3 teams at the meet total.

•No Spectators at indoor events.

•Spectators will be allowed at outdoor events according to venue and head count maximums.

•Soccer will limit the entire attendance to 250 people including players, coaches, of_cials, event staff and spectators.

Find the entire press release from Activities Director Trent Hanson at www.hastingsathletics.org/news_article/ show/1116794 Reading through social media, many programs and their participants are doing everything they can to look for the positive in this situation. First and foremost, as of right now, they get to play. It may not be normal or at the normal time of year, but they get to play. Second, this is a unique opportunity for many athletes to participate in four different seasons. You may now _nd Volleyball players on the swim team, or

football players on cross country. In fact, many schools are already reaching out to those players and telling them it is a great way for them to stay in shape and try something new.

When it comes to high school, college and pro sports, football is consistently at the top of the ratings. That means, many people already know about the potential issues of moving football to spring for the students and their post high school careers, but what about the Volleyball players? Players that plan on playing post high school tryout to join club teams that start in November to increase their visibility to colleges. Club teams are a great way to get exposure to college scouts, especially when they play for the the upper tier, nationally recognized club teams. The nationally recognized club teams, while expensive, provide the best exposure and are made up of all-star caliber players. Because of the change to the volleyball season, some local club teams have created teams for the fall. It is important for the players to keep playing. The longer they go without touching a volleyball, the faster their skills diminish. Sadly, for players that are skilled enough to play at the national club level, the change to the spring may mean they skip their high school season completely to play club.

As of now, we have answers to fall sports, we know there will be 4 of the 6 sports active this fall with the other 2 moving to a new, temporary, spring season. We know that there will be a second spring season for the normal spring sports, but that is all we know about spring sports right now. There have been no decisions made regarding winter sports at this time. Those discussions are expected to start sometime in October. Until then, let’s follow the lead of our student athletes and look for the positives, they get to play!

A huge amount of recognition needs to go to both Trent Hanson from HHS and John Millea of the MSHSL. Trent provided detailed communication within a few hours of the request and has been great to work with. John did a wonderful job with ‘play by play’ and a recap of the meeting on Twitter and the MSHSL website. Both were used as sources for this story. You can follow the HHS athletics page on twitter to receive updates as they are released @HHS_RaiderNews and John at @MSHSLJohn if you would like to see all the details he shared.