How do you navigate high school sports when there is a pandemic?  Do you just cancel them?  Do you proceed with caution?  Erie County is taking a step to make sure they happen this year.

When it comes to dealing with a pandemic, nobody has a manual to tell them what you should and shouldn't do.  You just hope that people do their best to keep as many people safe as possible.

Today, the Erie County Department of Health decided to give the green light to sports that were considered "High Risk."  Sports that normally would have been held in the fall and winter were pushed off, and many people worried that kids would miss out on their entire season if they were cancelled this year.

For many students, that is their path to get into college.  Some of them depend on sports scholarships to pay for their tuition.  Without the sports, many of them would struggle to pay for college, or would just skip it altogether.  But many would argue that if they get sick it could create even bigger problems.

So how much of a risk are sports like that?  That is what has to be evaluated.

According to WKBW, at this point, the following sports are going to be permitted to have a season:

  • Football
  • Wrestling
  • Ice hockey
  • Rugby
  • Basketball
  • Contact lacrosse
  • Volleyball
  • Martial arts
  • Competitive cheer
  • Group dance
  • Other sports and recreation activities with similar abilities to maintain physical distance and/or limit exposure to shared equipment prior to such equipment being cleaned and disinfected.

These sports will be able to begin as soon as February 1st in Erie County.  Niagara County is still evaluating their options.

 

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