The high school cross country, soccer, football and volleyball campaigns all ran mostly without a hitch, even with the occasional outbreak causing teams to miss and reschedule games.
Now the key is to carry that success over into the upcoming high school basketball campaign -- and there’s no shortage of caution being taken.
League organizers have taken into account concerns over the coronavirus from multiple angles and have put together a plan that will see teams submit their vaccination status and plans to a third party, from which final scheduling decisions will be made.
How that works is simple -- teams from all over Prairie South School Division and Holy Trinity Catholic School Division will inform the third party whether or not they’re fully vaccinated or will have unvaccinated players submit the standard 72-hour negative test. How that mass survey turns out will determine what direction the various leagues take when it comes to final scheduling.
“So if students are willing to provide a negative test, that would go one direction and if students are not, it’ll go another direction,” said Derrick Huschi with the Prairie South School Division, adding that the plan is supported by Holy Trinity and the Ministry of Education.
“We put it out to coaches and families (Tuesday) and have fielded some calls, then we’re collecting the data and schedules will start, regardless of what happens, next week.”
The first criteria is proof of vaccination, which is expected to cover a large portion of players. From there, the unvaccinated will have to decide whether they’re willing to provide a negative test. A positive response, and it’ll be full systems go.
Anything else, and decisions will have to be made.
A major factor is the willingness of officials to work games with unvaccinated players, in addition to concerns from players and coaches given the high aerobic intensity of the sport.
“If every team won’t provide that, then we’ll have to go with the officials who said they’d officiate regardless of status and that would reduce the number of games we can offer,” Huschi explained. “The officials are no different than anyone else, everyone has their different levels of how they feel about COVID. Some are a little more concerned and they’re saying they’re not comfortable where they’re running up and down the court with these kids breathing heavy and all that… We have coaches and players who are fearful too, so we’re trying to make sure everyone is comfortable and as safe a possible.”
The good news is that regardless of how things turn out, basketball will be played. It might be a far shorter season than usual with fewer games, but as of right now, the plan is to see things tip off at some point during the Dec. 13 weekend.
“All we’re trying to do right now within our current circumstances is try and find a solution, doing problem-solving that will allow us to maximize the season,” Huschi said.
