Buffalo, NY (WBEN) High school basketball, hockey, cheerleading, and other high risk sports programs can finally resume beginning Monday, after getting clearance from five county health leaders. Spectators won't be allowed inside, however.
Section VI Executive Director Mark DiFilippo says it was not easy getting approval from Niagara, Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany County health officials. "We worked hard to try to get the five departments of health in one room to make a joint decision for us to prove to them it's safe for kids to get going again, and we're taking precautions to do that," says DiFilippo. He says other sections aren't ready to go. "They're surprised we got all five of our counties to approve so fast. Section V, which is Rochester, isn't ready to go for Monday. Same with Section II and Section III."
DiFilippo says schools continue to screen students daily, and there has not been an infection spread. "In terms of practices, we're being very cognizant of having too much contact with one another, separating them in cohorts," he notes.
DiFilippo says spectators will not be allowed inside to start the season. "We just felt it's hard enough for our schools and coaches to get this ship turned around and move it in the right direction. We don't want to have to deal with being the mask police or the social distancing police," says DiFilippo. He says with contact tracing, there have been cases with spectators affecting teams.
If a team has a player with a positive test, the team's activities are shut down for ten days. "In a shortened season, that will be detrimental and impact teams dramatically with that ten day pause," says DiFilippo. To parents, he says kids weren't on the playing field two months ago, and now it's game time.
Hamburg Schools Superintendent Michael Cornell says preparations are the usual with a compressed time period, plus precautions against COVID spread risk. "We're just making sure we're ready to accommodate any of the additional safety protocols related to COVID that we need to make sure we have in place for players and coaches," says Cornell. Those extra precautions include having enough PPE, faciliites have proper spacing for social distancing.
Cornell says the district will abide by the Section VI no spectator policy. "The first obligation is to make sure we can carry out the activities safely and not do anything to contribute to COVID spread in our community, and the best way for us to do that is have the players play, the coaches coach, and the parents watch by streaming," says Cornell who calls the decision a responsible ruling.
The only high risk sport not starting Monday is wrestling, which will start May 10tn.
