Who Wants to Play? High School Sports Struggle with the New Normal
Last March, high school sports stadiums and venues across the country fell silent. Now, more than one year later it remains unclear when the stadiums and the athletes who occupy them might find their roar again.
As high school sports slowly come back, altered seasons and schedule changes have forced athletes into a difficult spot. One of those is Kyle Brokamer, who traditionally plays football in the fall and participates in track and field in the spring. “I was essentially forced to choose, with the added stress of classes being the way they are, I just don’t think playing two sports at once is actually doable,” Brokamer said. He opted for track, in hopes that football will return to normal in the fall.
Despite the challenges, some athletes are lucky to have a season to begin with. Earlier this month, Millbrook High School was forced to cancel their upcoming season, in large part due to a lack of willing participants. A number of positive COVID-19 tests at the school, forced athletics to pause, and with New York State rules requiring at minimum 10 practices before games could be played, a season just wasn’t possible.
However, COVID might not be the only factor that doomed Millbrook’s 2021 football season; in 2017 the school was forced into a smaller division due to a drop in enrollment, a staggering 26.5% decline between 2009 and 2019. This year they were scheduled to participate in a new 8-man football league, as opposed to the traditional 11 versus 11 format. Locally, New Paltz and Saugerties have also opted out of the spring season.
In a letter written to school personnel and parents, Saugerties superintendent Kirk Reinhardt said, “This is a very difficult and heartbreaking decision on many levels. The guidelines are extremely demanding in terms of locker room use. We are expected to sanitize and keep everything clean.” Reinhardt also highlighted concerns about player safety, “We are very concerned regarding practice and playing fields for a high-contact sport, we have to be very mindful of injuries for students with these conditions.”
As for when fans can return to the stands and signal a sense of normality, that largely depends on the state’s vaccination efforts. Earlier this week, Governor Andrew Cuomo outlined a possible path forward when he unveiled the Excelsior Pass, an app developed in cooperation with IBM here in the Hudson Valley. The app is the first of its kind in the U.S., and will allow users to upload either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test. The so-called vaccine passport would allow users to safely enter sports venues or businesses. While the technology is sound, its hard to say how quickly and willing people will be to adopt such measures.
