High School Winter Sports Update

The CIAC announced last week that most winter sports, including basketball, can begin playing games on Feb 8. Pictured Wethersfield's Alexa Grenier. Photo courtesy of Jo-Ann Campbell

After two tense months, the winter sports season is a go.

The CIAC (Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference) with guidance from the CTDPH (Connecticut Department of Public Health) and approval from the control board detailed a plan that will allow high school sports programs to begin practicing on January 19, with winter sports competition starting on February 8.

Winter sports were originally stalled after Governor Ned Lamont put a two-month pause on any amateur athletics in mid-November. The idea was to give a two-week window following the holiday break in order to track the COVID-19 metrics across the state.

The new winter sports plan looks a lot like the fall sports plan, allowing teams to play a condensed regular season and participate in a postseason experience, most likely league and conference tournaments.

However just like the fall season, the plan does not permit a state tournament.

Basketball, ice hockey, gymnastics, and swimming will be allowed to have 12 regular season games/meets, starting February 8 and continuing until mid-March. The postseason experience would take place from March 15-28.

This will mark the second straight year that both basketball and ice hockey will not crown state champions. Both sports were in the middle of the state tournaments when the CIAC cancelled the remainder of the 2019-2020 season in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak last March.   

Wrestling, competitive dance and cheer have been classified as high-risk activities and will not be permitted to compete this season. Instead, they can have super-fun, small group conditioning and non-contact skill building during the winter session.

Sideline cheer – minus any stunting – can perform at basketball games.

Indoor track will also be limited to practice-only this season, with both indoor and outdoor meets still in consideration for March.

The biggest obstacle for the athletes this winter is that masks must be worn during competition, with the obvious exception of swimming and some gymnastic events.

In the fall, volleyball was the only sport that required mask to be worn while playing. The other sports (soccer, field hockey, cross country) required masks to be worn on the sidelines but not during competition.

Mask breaks will be allotted during basketball and ice hockey games, allowing athletes a chance to breathe freely and change masks if needed.
CIAC director Glenn Lungarini also announced that any alternative season between winter and spring has been canceled, eliminating what would have been a potential football season and possible wrestling season. Both sports are considered high-risk and because of the delayed start to the winter sports season the CIAC did not want the alternative season to overlap or shorten a spring sports season.

“We certainly understand and empathize with those athletes that would have been able to have some competition in that alternative season will not have that competition, but again through this experience we have tried the best we can to provide any opportunities that we could make available to or kids,” Lungarini said on January 14, “If we couldn’t provide those high-risks, we were able to successfully engage kids in low to moderate risk activities. We will continue to do that through the winter season,”

This puts an end to several agonizing months for the football players and coaches, who were put through a mental meat grinder, ultimately being told they could not play 11v11 football in the fall and are now being told the alternative season is no longer an option even though every other state in the country has played contact football or has an option for playing in this spring.

As of now, any high-risk sports are not permitted in the state and many have criticized the risk evaluations of high school sports. These evaluations are determined by the NFHS (National Federation of State High School Association) and the CTDPH makes the recommendations to the state on which risk categories should not be played.

Boys lacrosse, a relatively low-risk sport based on the fact it’s played outdoors and allows for social distancing, has been deemed high-risk, putting its status for the spring in jeopardy. The spring sports season is set to begin on March 29.

These inconsistencies have baffled players, coaches, parents, and supporters of sports considered high-risk.

As they have stated from the beginning of the school year, the CIAC continues to say that any decision is fluid as more data, health metrics, and specific sports information becomes available.

Starting this week, winter sports will proceed with athletic directors and coaches scrambling to put together schedules and give these athletes a proper experience, despite the challenges.

The CIAC notes that they do not recommend having spectators at sporting events but that ultimately the individual schools could determine what was best for their district.

​Good luck to all the winter sports athletes, you all deserve a round of applause.

​

---