Over the past few weeks, a variety of decisions have come down regarding upcoming high school sports season across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some states have opted to proceed with their seasons, while others have pushed back starting dates or moved fall sports to another point on the calendar. On Tuesday, the Montgomery County Public Schools (Md.) made a big move concerning scholastic sports.
Rather than cancel only fall sports due to the COVID-19 situation, MCPS announced the cancellation of fall and winter high school sports for its 25 high schools. The cancellation includes the swimming season. Whether a spring season is played will be decided at a later date. The move by Maryland’s largest school district came as a surprise since it included the cancellation of winter sports in July, instead of reassessing the situation in, say, October. Decision regarding sports in Maryland have been left up to individual school districts.
“While we are deeply saddened by the cancellation of interscholastic athletics during this time, we know that the number one priority for everyone is the health and safety of our students and staff,” said Jeffrey Sullivan, the MCPS Director of Athletics, in a statement. “In this regard, we appreciate the ongoing efforts of student-athletes, coaches, athletics specialists, athletics coordinators, and all stakeholders across our program to embrace and champion physical distancing and safe practices. We are inspired by your acts of generosity, kindness, and compassion and continue to be inspired by your messages of hope.”
The full statement can be seen here.
Not surprising, the decision by the MCPS generated pushback, the most notable argument stating that it was unnecessary to cancel the winter sports season at this time. Social media response to the decision included comments suggesting that a decision on winter athletics should have come closer to the season, when the situation surrounding COVID-19 may have changed.
I would like to see ANY/ALL current testing of Athletes/Chlorinated pools correlations FOR/AGAINST why this decision necessary… All U.S Aquatic Facilities should have SOME results!!!
Ja Bounce I’m on the pool every day. Seeing what the chlorine has done to my skin, hair, and nose, I’d say covid has no chance.
Andy Gallion Exactly my point on this topic…. ANYONE (including family members of a Club Swimmer / Water Polo player) knows this to be TRUE!! I find it completely ridiculous the no major (or any for that matter – so far) have used any/all resources around them (I.E – Major University, Sci, Bio, Chem teams/groups, etc) to HELP with day-to-day testing of Pool Chemicals & pos/neg affects on Athletes.. Most (if not all Major facilities (even smaller ones) have a College/Testing facility close at hand… #TimeToOpenUp&MoveForwardWithTesting-InTheU.S.A
Ja Bounce I’m with you 100%. Had the kids to a very prominent pulmonologist who’s been living covid 24×7 since March tell us there is nothing safer than swimming in this pandemic. My son just lost his jr year of college water polo. ?
Andy Gallion Damn!! My youngest could possibly not see her (Jr year) High School Polo this Fall (Here in the #503)… I coached Swimming / Polo for over 23 years (age-group – Olympic Qual) Sooooooooooooo before this is a “THING” show the U.S.A results before pulling the plug.
Ja Bounce – exactly. Their bodies have absorbed so much chlorine at this point they will be fine. Hell, it come out of their pores 3 hours after practice when they take a hot shower! Pools can be safe.. poor kids
Andy Gallion its not the water/chemical. Covid probably won’t live in the water itself but having so many swimmers in close quarters…locker room, fooling around in deck, carpooling…plus the aerosolization spray after exertion, thats the issue.
Lisa Patterson Wolf and that’s why we have strict protocols that are being safely followed. I have college and high school swimmer who are swimming in a serious club right now following the protocols. My outdoor pool is following the protocols. My wife is a full time coach, and her teams and swimmers are following them. There are clubs safely running intra squad meets this Summer. Follow the rules, and you are good.
Andy Gallion agree with you but so many comments seem ignore those parts of the conundrum. They focus on the fact that the pool itself is safe( which we all seem to agree on) but rarely talk about the protocols needed out of the pool. Glad its working but having coached all ages in my coaching career, I’m wonder if we can ever get the younger ones in the pool?
Lisa Patterson Wolf that’s the harder problem. I know many of the clubs are going to not have younger age groups this Fall, and even age group kids are going to be swimming less as pool space is scarce due to lane restrictions. This is devastating to the swimming world.
Swimers should come already changed (to save on time, personal spacing etc), no sinks, 1-2 toilets only, have a walk- through shower/tunnel, & team enter & exit from opposite sides of facility. For starters. They can shower at home afterwards
Ja Bounce my kids are in and out, come home wrapped in a towel. I live 2 blocks from my pool. I suit up, wrap a towel around me, walk to the pool, and wait. When we are let in, I walk to my lane, drop my towel, swim, get out, wrap the towel, and make a beeline for the exit.
Really, cancel the Winter already? Utterly ridiculous.
Vintage Montgomery County, MD.
Ridiculous
In the UK all swim clubs closed mid-March and we’re still waiting to get back…with a vaccine not too far away (?) cancelling the winter season seems hasty!
Just call it an organized water protest and proceed as usual
This is ridiculous! It is time for the silent majority to stand up and take action!!
Sarah Hobrock Popovich I am SO with you!!! Total ridiculous
Right now the US is leading the entire world with these cases. Had we all went on full lock down (every state) and not open so soon we wouldn’t be in this mess right now. Some European countries are sending their kids back. But that’s because they got their sh— together. We can’t get parents to agree on opening or closing schools. Why am I not surprised that we couldn’t get states to agree on a total shutdown. I feel for the kids but if they go back to school and come down with a bad case of this virus, the parents and other will question why did they open schools so soon. The saying “damn if you do and damn if you don’t comes to mind☹️
There are 25 teams that share 9 (some of those are for only 1 school, so it’s not evenly distributed) pools, max 8 lanes. Kids are already getting 1 hour practices 2x a week, some with 10+ per lane. In the covid environment, there’s no practical solution to make this work right now.
This is MD.
There has been one (1) covid death in an person under the age of 19 years n the state of Maryland. I sure am glad our Montgomery county taxes are
Being spent with building new state of the art schools like Seneca Valley which will be unused for how long ?
The closure of schools also puts many 2 working families at risk to lose 1 income even if one parent can work from home they cannot focus on their job nd make sure their child is focused on virtual learning especially younger elementary age children. And what about the special needs kids ? I can’t help but wonder if Biden said send the kids to school if the school systems would open? It does make you wonder since there is evidence that young people don’t catch or transmit thei GD virus.