The Suburban Amateur Football League (SAFL) has cancelled its fall season, citing COVID-19 concerns.
The league’s board of directors made the decision last week after reviewing guidelines from the governor for athletes, team staff and officials.
“Although this decision weighed heavily on all of us, the importance of keeping our players, coaches, officials, volunteers, and families safe outweighed a decision to move forward with a regular season,” the board wrote on its league website and social media pages.
It was a tough decision, SAFL Commissioner Howard Barber said. “Since April we have been meeting virtually discussing the season and going over all of the different aspects of this virus,” he said.
“It was up in the air for quite a long time,” added Kevin McKinney, president of Northampton’s SAFL program. “As an organization we were mostly waiting on the governor’s mandates. But as it became clear that football would be a Phase 4, high-risk category, the guidelines and restrictions for youth football leagues like ours just became too complex and cumbersome.”
For example, if a player were to test positive for COVID-19, the player and team would have to self-isolate for two weeks, not to mention the potential contact tracing from previous matchups. Since the league is only eight weeks long, the logistics of scheduling the season no longer made sense, let alone the risk involved in doing so.
The future of high school sports was also uncertain throughout the summer, though the MIAA recently announced that its fall season would begin no sooner than Sept. 14. Since the majority of SAFL programs use high school football fields, the setting for the season was untenable.
Assuming that the SAFL would even be able to use the fields, the current 100-person capacity would have also become problematic. With some teams fielding rosters as large as 40 players, the possibility of conflict for parents wanting to attend games was evident.
With all of these discussions in mind, 16 program representatives voted to cancel the season, with the remaining programs supportive of cancellation, but open to finding other outlets for football in the fall. All in all, the league decided that cancellation was the best option forward.
“We call Amherst youth football a family,” Mike Isabelle, president of Amherst’s SAFL program, said. “And the health and safety of your family is the most important.”
Though league officials and program presidents believe they made the right choice, they know it wasn’t good news for their athletes to hear.
“It is youth football after all — but to the kids it’s their NFL,” Isabelle said. “Obviously, it was very tough news … but with the uncertainty of COVID-19, it was the right move.”
Larry Jackson, president of the Holyoke SAFL program, agreed.
“I feel for the kids,” Jackson said. “But I don’t wanna be out there guiding training and then have some little kid come down sick.”
Looking forward, the SAFL hopes to hit the ground running in 2021 for a new season. And maybe even at a new time.
“There is an opportunity for a spring season in 2021, but it’s dependent on conflicts with other programming,” Howard said.
Such conflicts would include SAFL players who participate in spring sports such as baseball and lacrosse, as well as the coaches and officials that may have spring sport commitments as well.
Though the future of the league is uncertain, Barber is confident that they’re making the right decision in the present.
“We really want to provide for all of these players to be able to participate,” Barber said. “But this is the big picture: the health and safety of our youth. If we are to give up one season, but it’s not causing them to have as much of a risk for this virus, it’s worth it.”