Sports to start in an uncertain landscape

Football is moving to the spring, soccer and golf can be played in the fall, and as for when hockey, basketball and wrestling will be played, that’s very much up in the air.

This is high-school athletics in the age of COVID-19.

On Sept. 10, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) announced that football, volleyball and competitive cheer — all deemed “high risk” by the association — will start on March 1, 2021.

Students, however, can start practicing on Sept. 21 in sports deemed “low-risk” by the NYSPHSAA for the fall season. These sports — cross country, field hockey, golf, soccer, swimming and diving and tennis — must have 10 practices before they can start playing. There will be no regional or state tournaments, however, section championships are allowed and the season must end by Dec. 31. Another important note is that students opting for the remote-learning option can play sports.

The winter season is slated to start Nov. 30, “Fall Sports Season II,” with football, competitive cheer and volleyball, will follow on March 1, and the spring season will now start on April 19. Basketball, wrestling and hockey also fall into the “high-risk” category and the NYSPHSAA still has not decided which season these sports will play in.

As for football, the Holy Trinity football team — composed of players from Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School, Bishop Maginn High School and Catholic Central High School — will have to wait until the spring to hit the gridiron. Holy Trinity compiled an 8-2 record in 2019, the Pride’s first in Class B, and advanced to its second Section II title game.

Although the NYSPHSAA put out its guidance on Sept. 4, financial-strapped school districts that have had to lay off teachers due to budget shortfalls, may not be able to play sports this fall or winter.

“These are trying times not only with COVID but with schools’ budgets being cut,” said Alphonse Lambert, Saratoga Central Catholic athletic director and long-time baseball coach. “Athletics are a little bit on the back burner right now. … We just have to have our league determine who is going to be playing. Some districts might opt not to play in the fall. It is going to be athletics, but a different kind of athletics.”

Lambert said SCC will participate in girls’ and boys’ cross country, girls’ and boys’ soccer and golf in the fall and coaches must be diligent about following the common-sense protocols the NYSPHSAA put out in combating the spread of COVID-19, such as frequently sanitizing your hands, no hugging, handshakes or fist-bumps and wearing a mask or face covering when not able to maintain six feet of distance between players. Lambert added he managed 29 baseball games this summer and had three camps with 30-to-50 kids and had no issues.

“We were on them (about following COVID rules),” Lambert said. “Coaches were wearing masks. Baseball allows for a lot of distancing. Kids sat in chairs and some sat in the bleachers but it worked out.

“Coaches are going to have to do their due diligence in keeping kids spaced out and wearing masks, hand sanitizing, no sharing equipment. If everybody takes care of themselves and each other we can get through it.”

Lambert, who has coached the SCC baseball team for the last 33 years, is still smarting from the cancellation of high school sports last spring.
“It was extremely difficult, my DNA is baseball and it is a big part of the school,” Lambert said. “We have a lot of kids involved in the baseball program which has been extremely successful … It was very difficult to have the conversation with our kids. I had a call with them and there was much disappointment.”

The team usually plays in the Phil Waring Memorial Tournament that benefits the charity Kelly’s Angels, which helps children who have lost a parent. When the tournament was cancelled, the team did a virtual run that raised $2,305 for the charity.

“That is how we as a team were able to get some type of closure to the season,” Lambert said. “That will be in the yearbook forever.”