Analysis: Decision to play fall sports now rests with school officials – My Central Jersey

Scholastic sports are still scheduled to be played in New Jersey this fall, but modifications may be introduced, perhaps as early as today, USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey has learned.

Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to be joined by Senator Paul Sarlo, a staunch supporter of high school sports, and Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly, the head football coach at Hackensack High School, to discuss the future of scholastic sports during a coronavirus press briefing today at 3 p.m.

NJ.com, citing anonymous sources, first reported that the NJSIAA will not cancel the fall sports season.

USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey will provides updates later today with information from the press conference and a statement from NJSIAA officials.

The decision regarding the playing of fall sports will now fall to local school districts, four of which have already cancelled the season and two others who have already told West Jersey Football League officials that their respective programs will not compete this year.

NJSIAA Chief Operating Officer Colleen Maguire said in a recent letter to athletics directors of member schools “there is no confirmed medical evidence that transmission or spread occurs during competition.”

The statement was the strongest thus far from Maguire, but with Utah being the lone state in which official high school games have been contested (dozens of season-openers – one of which was canceled after three players on a team tested positive for COVID-19 – were played last weekend), abundant data regarding the sport’s safety amid the coronavirus pandemic simply does not exist.

Twelve statewide athletic associations and the governing body of high school sports in the District of Columbia have already canceled the 2020 football season.

Superintendents of two New Jersey school districts who have canceled fall sports asked the NJSIAA to follow their lead.

“While I appreciate the difficult position in which the NJSIAA finds itself, I implore them to act in the best interest of all student-athletes, coaches, spectators, referees and officials,” West Windsor-Plainsboro School District Superintendent David Aderhold said in a statement posted on his district’s website.

Carteret Schools Superintendent Rosa Diaz, whose district was the first in the state to cancel fall sports, echoed that sentiment, saying in a statement to USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey, “We sincerely hope the NJSIAA considers other options to ensure our athletes have an opportunity to safely participate in sports programs at a more appropriate time.”

In her letter to athletics directors statewide, Maguire acknowledged some “may be dealing with school administrators who are seriously considering canceling the fall sports season.”

For those athletics directors, Maguire concluded her correspondence with an impassioned email she received from a rising senior student-athlete.

“We obviously want everyone to be safe and limit potential exposure as much as possible,” the student-athlete, who hails from a South Jersey school, wrote. “We’ve gotten a taste of what our season would be like while practicing in Phase 1 and 2. As a three-sport athlete, I have never gone this long without playing sports and the competitive nature in me is eager to get back on the field. I definitely cherish the memories with my high school teammates because I will never get these years of my life back. I would love to have the opportunity to win another state championship, but that win doesn’t really matter to me as much as having just one last game with my teammates.”

Maguire bolded one sentence of the email, which referenced the student-athlete’s participation in club sports paling in comparison to competition with high school teammates.

The NJSIAA chief knows if high school sports are canceled, fall student-athletes will flock to youth leagues, club teams, showcases and personal coaches, all of which will be allowed, unless Murphy reverses field, to conduct practices and competition under his administration’s youth sports guidelines, which differ from those the NJSIAA implemented.

“The public needs to understand that high school sports” must “be in sync with our schools,” Maguire previously stated, adding “scholastic sports are part of the curriculum” and “don’t operate independently.”

As such, myriad factors impact the playing of high school sports, from transportation to locker room access to providing personal protective equipment and other variables.

As more school districts seek State Department of Education approval for an all-remote start to the academic year, an increasing number of school superintendents may have to determine if fall sports can be played while their students study virtually.  

State Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-Morris, Essex), who proposed legislation last month calling for an all-remote start to the academic year, said at the time she did not believe her bill should adversely impact scholastic sports.

“I don’t see this precluding necessarily practice and or play,” Jasey, the mother of two former student-athletes, said last month. “I think that could certainly be accommodated because I happen to believe very strongly that being on a team and the whole experience of (interscholastic competition) is really important.”

The NJSIAA’s recent announcement that student-athletes can play fall sports while studying virtually emboldened some to argue that districts who are commencing the academic year all-remote need not worry about players contracting COVID-19 and infecting others, especially teachers, in the school building.

Such arguments may have little bearing on school superintendents who will be charged with making local decisions should Murphy and the NJSIAA punt on canceling the season.

“There is an inherent risk in bringing athletes, fans and coaches from other districts, or the risk that another district may experience as we bring our students, coaches, and fans to their school community,” Aderhold’s statement said. “Unfortunately, these risks could completely invalidate all our efforts to keep our school community safe and our schools open.”

Murphy previously stated returning high school players to the field will “ultimately” be “an NJSIAA decision.” He has also repeatedly stated decisions about reopening the state will be predicated on science and data.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported “the number and rate of (COVID-19) cases in children in the United States have been steadily increasing from March to July.” The increase may be attributed to stay-at-home orders being lifted, the CDC reported.

“It is unclear whether children are as susceptible to infection compared with adults and whether they can transmit the virus as effectively as adults,” the CDC reports. “Recent evidence suggests children likely have the same or higher viral loads in their nasopharynx compared with adults and that children can spread the virus effectively in households and camp settings.”

The CDC reports children, who comprise 22 percent of the country’s population, account for 7.3 percent of all coronavirus cases nationwide.

As of yesterday, New Jersey’s rate of COVID-19 transmission stood at 1.08 and its rate of COVID-19 positivity last week stood at 1.4, the seventh best such rate in the country, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

With some of the nation’s leading medical experts in disagreement regarding sports competition, add risk as a factor alongside science and data governing decisions that will be made about returning players to the field.

Central Jersey Pop Warner President Jim Simmons said his league was not willing to take a risk, so it has shifted from tackle to flag football with no blocking or running out of the backfield due to coronavirus-related safety concerns for players, who range in age from 5 to 14 years old.

“Because of COVID, we want to protect our kids,” Simmons said, noting COVID-19 cases and reports of accompanying heart conditions among college players helped guide his league’s decision.

“You hear horror stories. And then with Rutgers having their problems, too, how can we keep going if these kinds of things are happening with these people who have real professionals dealing with their populations and we have all volunteers.”

Simmons said Pop Warner Football, under whose auspices his organization operates “has a waiver that everyone has to sign before they get on the field.” He noted that unlike professional and college programs, high school and youth sports teams do not have access to routine testing, nor can they operate out of a bubble.

The Big Ten’s medical advisory board recently directed the league to cancel the football season, while ACC medical advisory chairman Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an infectious disease specialist at Duke University, told Sports Business Daily last week he believes football can be safely contested.

A decision to cancel fall sports will have a profound adverse impact on the mental health and well-being of student-athletes, according to the results of a national survey Tim McGuine, a sports medicine researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, recently conducted.

“I take the opposite view that we are putting kids at risk by giving them sports opportunities,” McGuine said in a phone interview with USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey. “We need to give them sports opportunities to keep them safe and healthy.”

The study, which initially surveyed student-athletes in Wisconsin, expanded across the country, reaching approximately 13,000 student-athletes in 46 states and 820 counties, from which McGuine collected data.

McGuine said the study found that approximately 70 percent of student-athletes surveyed reported feelings of anxiety and depression at levels that would typically require medical intervention. McGuine said half of those surveyed from the highest levels of poverty reported moderate or severe anxiety and depression.

According to the research of a teacher in Kansas, nearly 200 coaches and student-athletes across the country have tested positive for COVID-19 since teams commenced practices or workouts last month. The teacher said she believes incidences of coronavirus among scholastic athletes and coaches is grossly underreported.

Some players and their parents at the college and high school level believe the decision to play should be left to themselves, not league officials or school boards. Petitions have circulated nationwide from players and parents at high schools and major college conferences attempting to reinstate football and other sports.

“It should be a parent and student’s decision as to whether or not they want to put themselves in a position to participate in their sport or activity,” Joe Bellamy, the father of a football player at Piscataway, wrote in an online petition he initiated last week.

With Murphy and the NJSIAA apparently forging ahead with fall sports, the decision to take the field this fall will be left up to local school districts.

And no guidance for that decision exists in any superintendent’s playbook.

Email: gtufaro@gannettnj.com