The city of Northampton’s recent sports pause came at a relatively convenient time for the parties affected. Both Northampton High School and Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School wrapped up their truncated fall seasons between when the order was announced on Nov. 8 and when it went into effect on Nov. 13. The Northampton Parks & Recreation department concluded its fall programming by then and turned its eye toward winter.
The order prohibited “all sports and recreation activities that involve close, sustained contact between participants, lack of significant protective barriers, and high probability that respiratory particles will be transmitted between participants” beginning at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 13. The order’s timing had a lot to do with the rising number of COVID-19 cases across the state.
“We were seeing the wave heading toward western Mass. The writing was on the wall,” Northampton Public Health Director Meredith O’Leary said. “I took advantage of the break between fall sports and winter sports to write this order specifically because we’re moving from outdoors in indoors.”
Teams or organizations seeking exemptions must submit a plan to the health department prior to practicing or playing.
“If these sports, these types of activities that are temporarily suspended want to do drills and skills types of practices they have to provide us with a very detailed plan regards to masks, sanitizing and social distancing,” O’Leary said.
Northampton Athletic Director Lauren McFarland reached out to her administrative team and Superintendent John Provost so she could get their perspective and work collaboratively. She also contacted the health department to understand the process of creating a plan should winter sports be an option for the Blue Devils.
“My No. 1 goal is to create a safe place for out student athletes to participate in physical activity. If that means we only have an intramural sport program or a skills program, I will do everything in my power to facilitate that,” McFarland said. “We saw how important it was for this fall.”
Both Northampton and Smith Vocational will need to follow guidelines and modifications from the MIAA, the state’s governing body for high school sports, as part of proposing their plans to the health department.
During a meeting on Friday, the MIAA board of directors approved modifications for alpine skiing, basketball, ice hockey, nordic skiing and swimming & diving. Wrestling and indoor track & field are typically winter sports, but they will be moved to later seasons. Wrestling is transitioning to a spring sport with the plan to compete outside to increase the possibility of interscholastic competitions being allowed. Indoor track & field will move to the “Fall II” season along with football and other postponed fall sports. That has more to do with facility access than safety, as venues like Smith College haven’t permitted outsiders to use their gyms and field houses.
In the same meeting, the MIAA voted to push back the start of the winter season to Dec. 14 to give more space after Thanksgiving. The PVIAC, which oversees schools in the Pioneer Valley, had already delayed the winter season to Jan. 4 at the earliest.
Now with the guidance from the MIAA in hand, the next step for high school athletic departments is to craft a proposal for health departments and school committees. Similar to the fall season, school committees need to sign off on athletic participation. One of the primary topics will be whether to have games or just practices for some indoor sports, McFarland said.
The parks & rec department, conversely, only has the health department to seek approval from. Parks & Rec Director Ann-Marie Moggio and her staff have been brainstorming safe alternative activities in addition to how a basketball program could work.
“We know how essential it is for the kids do some kind of activities for the health and social aspect of it,” she said. “With so much remote learning, the kids have been super happy and thrilled to have some kind of recreational offerings.”
The basketball offering will likely be shorter and focus on socially distanced drills rather than games or scrimmages. It’s similar to what the department was offering in June when the pandemic and rules around it were evolving rapidly.
“It’s made us look at the kind of programs we do and ask what kind of new things we can do that are different from a traditional sport that people can thrive on or love?” Moggio said.
They’ve considered “gym warrior” obstacle courses, yoga, more fitness routines and badminton, among other options. Their primary hurdle may be facility access. Many school gyms have been repurposed as spacious classrooms, and few organizations are letting outsiders use their spaces.
“The indoor social aspect of keeping something going and working with the health department for health and well being is something we’re all on the same page with,” Moggio said. “It’s definitely going to be different, but there’s still things we can do.”
The order also isn’t a ban through the end of the pandemic, O’Leary said. The health department reviews its proclamations periodically to make sure they align with current circumstances.
“Everything that we do tries to be evidence based and data driven. This is a temporary suspension. If the data speaks otherwise of course we’ll lift it,” O’Leary said. “We understand how important physical activity and being social is for mental health and physical health.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgarbowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.