Nassau Sports Can Resume Feb. 1, Following State Guidelines
NASSAU COUNTY, NY — Following an announcement from Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran announced that all high school sports will resume in the county starting Feb. 1.
Last week, Cuomo lifted the indefinite suspension of high-risk high school sports, but it left it up to individual counties as to whether sports would be allowed. The state released guidance on what safety measures schools need to take, and counties were also able to add additional guidelines. Suffolk County will be requiring additional testing for athletes and coaches, but Nassau will not.
High-risk sports that will be allowed starting Feb. 1 include basketball, wrestling, football and lacrosse.
"The county is giving the go-ahead to let our kids play ball," said Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. "The state has provided thorough guidance to allow our young residents to get back onto the fields and courts. We're directing school districts to follow this state guidance in its entirety. School districts will be required to adapt New York state required guidance in order to resume sports, which includes practices, matches, tournaments, games — everything they do."
Guidelines have been set for sports individually, but there are some mandates that affect them all: capacity at all indoor venues is capped at 50 percent, which includes athletes, coaches and spectators. Each student is only allowed to have two spectators present for the game. Where possible, everyone must maintain at least six feet of distance where possible, and coaches and spectators need to wear face coverings.
Though all school districts in the county are required to follow the state guidelines, they are a minimum requirement: if districts want to enact more strict measures, they are allowed to. It's also up to individual districts whether to allow sports to happen at all.
"On behalf of the Nassau County Council of School Superintendents, we are very happy and looking forward to seeing our student athletes compete once again," said Dr. Toni MacDonald, the superintendent of the Levittown School District and the president of the NCCSS. "As always, our No. 1 priority is the health and safety of our students."
Curran said that, if the guidelines are followed, that she believes sports will be safe for students. But it will be up to students and parents to make sure activities off the field are also safe.
"The school can control what happens [on the field] and at the school building. The school cannot control what happens afterwards," said Curran. "We know there are certain rituals, after a victory the team does social activities. So we're asking parents to be very vigilant and careful here. Limits are important right now."
If a student contracts the coronavirus, it will lead to that student being quarantined, and likely the sport they were playing being stopped for a period.
"When there's a case, we're going to be quarantining. And it isn't going to matter to the Health Department if there's a championship game," said Dr. Lawrence Eisenstein, the county's health commissioner. "When people are quarantined, they're going to be quarantined."
You can read the full list of state guidelines for each sport by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on the Long Beach Patch
