High school sports in V.S., all of Nassau County postponed to 2021

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Nassau County high school student athletes will have to wait until 2021 to compete in sports.

At an Aug. 26 emergency meeting, a committee of school superintendents voted to postpone sports in the county — otherwise known as the New York State Public High School Athletic Association’s Section VIII — until Jan. 4. Section VIII became the first of the state’s 11 sections to postpone its fall season.

“I believe other sections will follow and pull the plug, but I can’t speak for anyone else,” said Section VIII’s executive director of athletics, Pat Pizzarelli. “We felt strongly enough to make this decision now,” he said. “We took the cautious route, but we believe it’s in everyone’s best interests. There are too many unknowns.

“It’s just not time to allow kids to play sports,” he continued. “And my first and foremost concern is the safety of our student-athletes.”

On Aug. 27, Central High School District Athletic Director Scott Stueber announced the news in a letter to parents and students. Registration for all sports, he said, will be closed until a start date is set for the next season.

Central High School cross-country and track runner Andrew Peña, 16, a junior, described the whiplash the news brought, from feelings of excitement as he trained for the upcoming season to sadness and cautious optimism that there were still plans to hold a season, but at a different time.

He was getting back into shape after a foot injury, and although he would not longer be competing this fall, “I’m going to continue to run,” he said. “I want to do my best in the next season, regardless of when it takes place.”

The decision came two days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued guidance permitting lower-risk high school fall sports (soccer, tennis, swimming, field hockey and cross-country) to begin practice and play on Sept. 21, while noting football and volleyball could begin practice but not play.

However, the superintendents did not consider the current conditions safe enough to conduct any fall sports. The seven-person committee voted unanimously to postpone. “It was never a consideration to try playing even the lower-risk sports,” Pizzarelli said. “Transportation is a big issue. There are a lot of issues.”

Cross-country runner Warren Pershad, 16, also at Central High School, said he worried how the postponement might affect the team’s makeup.

“It’s a little concerning,” he said. “Most of our team had just graduated, so this year was an important year considering how many new kids we would get and how skilled they are. It’s a little nerve-racking not knowing what the future might bring.”

Although he has run cross-country since seventh grade, he worries that younger students might decide not to give the sport a try, and considering the strain that cross-country can put on a beginner’s body, Pershad was also concerned freshman athletes might struggle to keep up their training in winter when it’s cold.

“I’ll be keeping up my running, keeping in shape so that once the season starts I can continue,” he said. “Hopefully the team also keeps it up so we can start running at as good as or better performance.”

In an interview, Stueber said a major concern was an overall lack of guidance from the state on how to safely resume sports in time for the Sept. 21 date. Current guidelines for phys. ed., he said, dictate 12 feet of social distancing during activities. Athletic programs are an extension of said phys.-ed. curriculum, raising questions whether the same restrictions apply.

“How do you justify restricting phys. ed to 12 feet social distancing and then say you can play a sport and may not need a mask,” he said, highlighting conflicting state directives. “It’s a tough decision to put upon school administrators.”

The plan now, Pizzarelli said, is to fit all three sports seasons in between January and June, when, officials hope, the threat of Covid-19 will have decreased. He said that Section VIII would aim to limit season overlaps to one week at the most.

“We’ll look to get started Jan. 4 with the traditional winter sports, including basketball and wrestling,” Pizzarelli said.

Each sports season will be condensed, running nine weeks. The fall sports will be played in the second season, and spring sports will be third, as usual.

Haleigh Chan, 16, also a Central cross-country runner, said she believed the condensed seasons might pose an additional challenge to student athletes who play more than one sport.

“Even in a regular school year with minor gaps in between [seasons], it’s pretty rough physically,” she said, adding that it comes on top of keeping up with schoolwork. In addition to cross-country, Chan fences in the winter and runs track in the fall.

She said that while news of the postponed season did not come as a surprise, she worries what it could mean for her athletic career and potential scholarships. “I was looking forward to starting my junior year of sports,” she said. “I was looking to establish my name as a high school athlete.”

Considering the potential for lost scholarships and academic opportunities, Valley Streamer and youth football coach Derek Page said he believes an exception should be made for varsity sports to find a way for them to play their seasons.

“I believe the season should be postponed or cancelled as far as for the younger kids,” Page, whose sons attend Kellenberg Memorial High School, and who both play football there as well as basketball and wrestling respectively, said, but, “When it reaches the high school level, somehow and some way they should try and get varsity sports played.”

“There are quite a few kids who count on scholarships, or something to put on their transcript,” he added. “To take it away without giving them the opportunity, that stings a bit.”

Stueber said the Section VIII Senior High School Athletic Council would likely meet within the first two weeks of the school year to hash out further details.

“There are a lot of factors we have to consider,” he said, including transportation, as well as facility and sporting official availability.

Last year’s spring season was nixed March 16, after one week of practice, because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“You feel terrible,” Stueber said of the situation. “You don’t want kids to lose the opportunity to participate with their teammates. A lot of these young men and women spent their whole summer preparing and hoping they’ll have an opportunity to return to a sense of normalcy.”