State health director: High school sports will have a 'new normal' until there's a vaccine, treatment
Updated May 5, 2020 9:35 p.m. EDT
By Nick Stevens, HighSchoolOT managing editor
https://www.highschoolot.com/state-health-director-high-school-sports-will-have-a-new-normal-until-there-s-a-vaccine-treatment/19085698/Anybody have a guess how the "new normal" will affect the start of the 2020-2021 Wrestling Season? It is going to tough for the wrestlers to wear masks and maintain social distancing.
RALEIGH, N.C. — It's been 53 days since a high school sports team has competed in North Carolina, and it may be awhile before we see high school sports resume as normal.
The coronavirus pandemic suspended high school sports in North Carolina on Mar. 13. Last month, the N.C. High School Athletic Association announced the basketball state championships would be canceled and the spring sports season would not be completed due to COVID-19. The N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association, which oversees high school sports for private schools, also canceled its spring sports season.
Now attention is turning to summer activities and fall sports, but with COVID-19 still an ongoing problem, it's uncertain if high school athletics will return this fall. If sports do resume, it will be with "a new normal," according to North Carolina State Health Director Dr. Elizabeth Tilson.
Tilson, who was an athlete in high school and a record-setting sprinter in college at Dartmouth, said high school sports will have to adjust to the new normal until there is a treatment and vaccine for the virus.
"They will probably have to have what we're calling 'a new normal' until we have a good treatment medication and a vaccine, so there will probably be an element of social distancing, of increased cleaning of surfaces, increased hand hygiene, and probably also a lot more wearing of cloth face coverings for probably a long time until we have a good treatment and a vaccine. That will be a new normal for quite a long time," Tilson said in an interview with HighSchoolOT on Tuesday.
North Carolina is preparing to implement phase one of three of Governor Roy Cooper's plan to reopen the state and restart the economy. Each phase will have an impact on high school athletics too.
"Throughout this whole thing we've been wanting to encourage physical activity, not just for the physical benefit but also the mental health benefit as well, so we've been strong to say people can still go outside, still go on a walk, still exercise," Tilson said. "One of the things you'll see in phase one, some of the parks that have been closed, we're making sure that they open so we can really take advantage of that outdoor space in order to have that physical activity."
Athletes who are hoping to get back into gyms, weight rooms, and fitness centers are going to have to wait a little bit longer though.
"When you think about gyms and fitness being inside, there's a little bit more of a higher risk (of transmitting the virus) in an indoor setting, so that'll be more of a phase two. But also thinking through, in an indoor setting, still maintaining that social distance and still showing that we're cleaning all those high-touch surfaces," said Tilson.
Some sports will be safer than others and could have the ability to resume sooner. Golf, for example, has been permitted throughout the pandemic because it is outside and social distancing can be maintained. Tilson said other sports like tennis and cross country could also be safer to resume than some contact sports like football.
"Those kind of activities that are outside and you can stay away from each other, those will be the easiest ones to allow," she said.
Athletic directors across the state are already thinking about the financial impact if football season is impacted. For most schools, football pays the bills for other sports. Without fans in the stands on Friday nights in the fall, entire athletic department budgets could be at risk.
Tilson said it's too soon to say whether or not football season may be impacted.