Son (6th Grade) practiced all week with and will go full pads next week here in MN. There are some families who have opted out due to covid (which I am totally fine with) and others who are playing for the first time (also totally fine with this decision). Its really a personal decision, and is likely driven by your risk tolerance.
The strange thing about the decision in MN is that High School Football season is postponed to spring, yet practices are on. So essentially they just aren't playing games this fall, but teams can be full go within their own team. Draw your own conclusions.
I didn't know that about the youth teams.
They're going to have some major potential weather issues in the spring; he is pretty unhappy with how it all went down.
There is a large segment that wants the country to get on with life, even if that means losing more people than if we played it completely safe. The reasons for this range from economic to educational to psychological. There is also a large segment that wants to play it very safe - prioritizing safety from the virus over these other considerations. When you get a sport that is as regional as it is national, with all of the economic incentives at play, you get what we are seeing: significant regional differences in how the issue is handled.
I don’t think I’m telling you anything you don’t already know, but that’s the reality and it isn’t going to change. I think some schools / conferences (southern) will play more of the season than others because that’s what their state governments / schools / alumni want.
first two games. They will re-evaluate after that.
I think some schools are going empty stadium for the whole season, in part, because they fear boosters complaining about who got tickets and who didn't, and they don't want to deal with the mess.
decision making. Since there is no entity strong enough to wrangle the conferences, the conferences will each do what they feel is in their own best (financial) interest. It's dumb.
Remember when one player in the NBA tested positive and they shut everything down for months? Now you've got two separate instances of 10+ people testing positive on baseball teams, and they just shut those teams down for a week and otherwise continued with the sport.
Just looking at this from a purely cynical point of view and putting the ethics aside just for the sake of argument, I don't think that football games should be the very first events that take place on college campuses. The reason I say that is because these campuses don't yet have a baseline for what a "normal" rate of infection is on a week to week basis, and without that baseline anything that happens on campus during the first week/month is going to be an "increase" and people will point to football games as a contributor, fairly or unfairly. To put it another way, it's problematic that nobody has defined what the tolerance level is going to be for positive tests among football players, staff, and the student body at large.
Alternatively, if they wait until campuses have been open for at least a couple months then (again, cynically for the sake or argument), the student body will be the guinea pigs. They'll have already dealt with the drama and consequences of the first students that get quarantined or sent home or sent to the hospital. They'll have already experienced an infection rate among the students and will have made the decision of whether that's acceptable or not to keep the campus open. So then once football games begin, they'll at least have the information to determine whether the infection rates for their football players and staff are greater or less than that of campus at large.
Just wait until the Spring.
Limited workouts are allowed so I'm hopeful my sons (in middle school) will at least be able to have cross country practice. They're trying this for the first time because it's a sport that has a higher likelihood of happening.
I guess I am agnostic on the decision, I am just sad for the kids.
but, you need strong leadership and buy in to have consistency.
There have been epic failures in leadership from the top down.
We had hundreds of kids play this Summer, including rec, open league, and travel. Not one COVID incident in our league. Nothing of which we were aware, at least. A few neighboring leagues had a case or two.
We tried to social distance as much as we could. You know how kids are. Masks are not required outdoors and most parents and coaches did not wear them.
As an aside, during a recent pre-school check up visit, our pediatrician said they had tested over 280 kids since this started. 11 positives. 2 exhibited serious symptoms. No hospitalizations. He was quite skeptical. Not of the potential for serious illness, especially for adults with pre-existing conditions, but of the politicization of it all. He felt it was impossible at this point to know the true numbers and impact.
wear a fucking mask for a few months, for crying out loud. It's really not that much to ask.
social distancing is relatively easy in baseball, nearly impossible in football.
You are 100% right social distancing is easy in baseball as compared to football but as we've seen in MLB they've had the most problems.
Now if every game your kids are playing features masks for everyone and socially distanced kids in the dugouts, that's a different story because that's not happening here in California.
The assumption is that every kid playing in a football game is being tested routinely to limit the spread and I don't believe travel baseball is doing that.
certain places there have been masks required for everyone, including kids in the dugout. Other places, not as much.
Testing depends on where things have been available. I don't believe most of the kids playing football will have been tested.
my concerns right now are limited to playing football; if they were to re-start college baseball right now (and an argument can be made that they could have over the summer) I would not have the same concerns.
Basketball and football are high risk, IMO (for different reasons). I don't understand a hurry to re-start football.
I fully understand your concerns about football and them not being able to socially distance plus the temptation to party with regular students.
But I also am the belief that if both teams are being tested for Covid and properly going through protocols you can play a game.
My concern with youth sports is that some coaches and organizations feel that Covid can't affect them and thus it's maskless and lack of social distancing. And these kids aren't being tested like the college kids.
We'd love for my kid to play this summer, but the one game we went that had his friends playing, had no social distancing, no masks, no changing of balls.
the games are so different.
I understand your concern, but I don't share your optimism that everyone at every school will be tested. Some schools simply will not be able to afford that.
I am purely guessing. As you know I don't think they will play (they should) for reasons stated above.
1 - the later it starts, the more you cross over into flu season making it harder to determine what someone is infected with.
2) later you start, the more likely you have top players dropping out to prep for the NFL. There is probably also more chances the everyday players opt out.