The long awaited decision on fall sports has finally been made by the school board, confirming that there will be athletics this season.
In a three to two votes decision, the district will allow teams to participate in this year’s fall season. This does, however, come with many restrictions in an attempt to keep all students safe from the coronavirus.
“There are a great deal of protocols put in place,” Athletic Director Howard Sobolov said. “So far the athletes and coaches have been great about abiding by the protocols.”
The school board faced an extremely difficult question of whether it was safe to play or not, but with the support of community members and guidelines for athletes to adhere to, there is confidence that sports can continue safely.
“We have had a great deal of support as evidenced by the turnout at the school board meeting voting on sports,” Sobolov said. “I would expect the community to hold us accountable to do our best to provide appropriate safeguards to do our best to protect the athletes, coaches, fans.”
On the first day of school, September 8, all LHS fall teams, outside of cheer and unified soccer who began on September 9 and September 17, respectively, began practicing for the upcoming season. The late starting date will be a change for teams, but flexibility will prove to be a strong suit of any successful squad this year, including each school’s athletic department.
“We take it literally one day at a time and try to stay on top of each sport, each day,” Sobolov said.
The lack of fans will also be a change this year, as each member of every team is only allowed to have two parent spectators in attendance. With no students cheering during games, Lancer Nation is forced to come up with new ways to show support for their student athletes.
One worry, of course, will be an outbreak of the coronavirus, even with protocol in place. That is a worst case scenario, but anything is possible in these times.
“If there were an outbreak, there are strict guidelines set forth by the state to test, trace, and notify all potential persons who would have been potentially exposed,” Sobolov said.
The goal of hybrid learning is to both stay socially distant and give students the face to face learning opportunity that many need. This may mean sacrificing sports if it were a threat to participating in school and staying healthy. So far Londonderry has been extremely lucky and is able to participate in a season that is not available to everyone in our country.
“I would tell you,” Sobolov said, “school is most important.”
