Many school activities were canceled for the greater part of last semester due to the pandemic, one of them being MHS sports. However, as schools are gradually reopening, the athletics department placed protocols and precautions to ensure the safety of students and staff endeavoring in sports during the 2021-2022 school year.
First, to understand the protocol for social distancing and ensuring the safety of the teams, there are tiers to separate the different procedures for different sports. Sourced from the Santa Clara County COVID-19 Designee Training and provided by the athletics department, the tiers are listed by amount of contact and whether the sport is conducted indoors or outdoors. The yellow tier (minimal tier) is for indoor, moderate-contact sports such as badminton and volleyball. The orange tier (moderate tier) is for outdoor, high-contact sports such as basketball or water polo. The last two tiers include the red tier (substantial tier) for outdoor, moderate-contact sports like baseball, and the purple tier (widespread tier) for outdoor, low-contact sports such as track and tennis.
Athletic Director Joanna Butcher described the procedure for handling COVID-19 cases for sports if one were to arise. “We have to determine contact tracing. Then, we go forward from there, and there may or may not need to be a discussion with the coach who is trying to determine that as well. And then informing [parents/guardians] that they’ll receive a letter later with all of the other details that they are to quarantine. For now, it is 10 days. And then, they will test again at the end of their period and can continue back, as long as there are no symptoms,” Butcher explained in a Zoom interview.
Butcher then went on to explain the procedure if there was close contact with the individual who tested positive for COVID-19. The group or the team at hand would have to wait six days and then take the COVID test, she said. If the test came back positive, the individuals would have to be quarantined, and if the test was negative, the group was allowed to continue with their sport, she added.
Butcher also clarified on how testing for outdoor sports is not required due to there being open air for outdoor activities, and thus more ventilation compared to indoor sports. For example, at the beginning of reopening sports in MHS, soccer and football were required to test their players, until California entered the orange tier, where testing was not necessary due to the open air and masking requirements.
On the matter of how equipped the school is for testing and how many cases were positive while reopening the athletics department, Butcher said, “We’ve had over 1100 tests, and there’s only one trace positive at the moment.”
When asked if this procedure for handling COVID-19 cases is viable for the coming school year, Butcher explained how the pandemic and the continuous flow of information is constantly changing, pushing the requirements and procedures to change as well. “The question will then be next year if you’re vaccinated. [And if you are], are you still testing? I think our coaches did a good job of being aware of keeping our athletes safe, and our numbers go to show that, so I’m not concerned necessarily going into the fall,” Butcher said.
Head Varsity Football Coach Kelly King explained how procedures for COVID-19 change regularly and sometimes even hourly as this is a new and developing virus. The school and district need to be prepared to adopt new protocols as COVID-19 progresses over time, he said.
King also expressed his thoughts about the staff workload in ensuring the student players’ safety at practices and games. “As a coach, we spent more time cleaning, and we had longer sessions. Our startup is longer in the front end to get kids checked in because before you open the door, the kids run and get changed, and they go out and start playing, but that’s not the process anymore. We have to check each kid in. And, there is just a longer process on the front end and the back end of practice.”
King described how in this time of crisis, the coaches and staff are doing the best they can to ensure the safety of the students. He also explained how the athletics department has done a wonderful job in keeping up with the changing procedures for handling COVID-19 cases.
Student athlete Faith Wong, who participates in Track and Field, explained how ready she and her teammates are if a COVID-19 case were to occur in their team in a Zoom interview. She described how she felt safe continuing her sport next year, since her sport is outdoors and does not require testing.
One measure Wong said she would like to see implemented more, especially in track and field, is enforcing social distancing measures whilst running on the track. “For us, when you’re running, you can have your mask down, but you just have to keep it on and stay distanced from the others. Sometimes the runners aren’t six feet apart all the time, so I guess maybe just [more] enforced,” Wong said. However, she recognizes that coaches are doing the best they can to enforce social distancing measures in all sports teams, Wong said.
Overall, the athletics department has been working hard on enforcing COVID-19 protocols in sports teams and ensuring the safety of student-athletes as MHS slowly reopens.
