Winter Sports are Back in the Game: How SMSD is handling putting on winter sports against recommendation

Throughout the fall sports season, SMSD student athletes abided by COVID-19 safety precautions and learned what it meant to be an athlete during a nationwide pandemic. As winter sports are approaching, the district has made the decision to continue winter sports amid the pandemic, against the Johnson County Health Department’s recommendation. 

Fall sports lost a month of their season before they were cleared to begin — but only with the necessary precautions. The players followed regulations such as wearing a mask when not practicing and maintaining the standard six feet of distance when possible. 

East Athletic Director Debbie Katzfey worked alongside the district and coaches to coordinate the fall and soon-to-begin winter seasons, while upholding precautionary guidelines. Katzfey says that the school and district are working together to try to move forward with fall and winter sports in a preventative manner.

“We’re going to continue to have [sports] and we’re going to do it as safely as possible, try to encourage everybody to limit the mass gatherings,” Katzfey said.

With all of the unknowns that were associated with fall sports occurring, it was considered a success that the district put them on with relatively few issues.

“I was so incredibly proud and so incredibly impressed of how our student athletes and coaches safely COVID-mitigated each individual activity and sport,” Katzfey said. “I can tell it was so important for them to continue and move on and play each and every day.”

While most fall sports remained safe throughout their seasons, a breakout of COVID-19 cases on the C and D soccer teams led the school to a temporary quarantine of the two teams, who scrimmaged each other before realizing one team was exposed.

On Oct. 27, after most fall sports came to an end and winter sports were soon to begin, Johnson County Director of the Department of Health and Environment Sanmi Areola sent a letter to all superintendents in the area, giving a strong recommendation to suspend winter sports for the time being. 

In the letter, the JCDHE suggests that the spread is too difficult to mitigate among indoor sports with an abundance of physical contact.

“JCDHE strongly recommend that you do not allow indoor sports or activities where mitigation techniques are not possible,” Areola stated in the letter. “The chances of widespread transmission in schools is higher if these indoor activities are performed.”

According to Katzfey, while the district seriously took the letter into consideration, it was ultimately a recommendation and was therefore not mandatory for each district to implement. 

“I know that letter has caused a lot of people to panic and to be very concerned,” Katzfey said. “It was a recommendation, [not] a requirement, so it does leave it up to each of the school districts to decide what they do or don’t do.”

Although going against the county’s recommendation, SMSD remains committed to holding sports throughout this winter season, with extended regulations similar to the fall season. 

For most indoor sports, students are required to wear masks when going to and from their practice areas and when not actively practicing — similar to the setup of the fall season. 

Unlike most winter sports, for bowling, the players must wear a mask at all times, whether that be during breaks or while actively competing. 

In addition to bowling, winter sports such as basketball, swimming or wrestling are able to be played because of the successful protections of mask wearing and keeping distance from players and coaches put forth in the previous season.

“I give total credit for winter sports happening to the student athletes and the coaches and the parents for what they did do in the fall,” Katzfey said. “Because we were able to make it through the fall, we’re moving on to the winter.”

Throughout all of the challenges that presented themselves during the pandemic and quarantine, Katzfey and the district were able to provide a piece of normalcy that everyone had been lacking the past few months. 

“I don’t think anybody in a million years in August thought we would be where we are today, that every single sport got to finish what they started,” Katzfey said. “And I think that is a huge privilege.”