Year into COVID pandemic, North Jersey youth sports leagues prepare for spring return – NorthJersey.com

This time last year, Jim Donovan’s youth lacrosse team was starting its season — the same way it does every March. But last year, as in the rest of the sports world, the team’s season was abruptly cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When everyone was shutting down last year, we were still on the field,” said Donovan, a Lyndhurst coach and president of the North Jersey Junior Lacrosse League. “Then we got shut down.

“We were back and forth, going, ‘Do we scrap the whole season?’ ” he said.

Indeed, after postponing their restart, the officials ultimately called the season off. They hope this spring will be better.

As the weather warms over the next few weeks, spring sports leagues — from travel basketball to lacrosse, baseball, softball, soccer and volleyball — will slowly resume. Coaches are prepared for midseason halts and have spent months preparing protocols for a safe return to play. They are eager to give their young athletes as normal a season as possible, and are prepared to face challenges that surface as byproducts of the pandemic.

“Obviously our most important goal is that we have some sort of season with safety,” said Donovan, whose season starts next week. “I got two temperature guns. I have a COVID questionnaire. I’m sure the numbers are going to be light, because I understand the numbers are light across the board.”

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For rec lacrosse, the challenges were unique, he said. He hopes to end the league’s season before the club lacrosse season begins in June, largely to avoid having his athletes mingling with players from other counties and increasing chances of exposure.

“The whole thing is uncertainty,” Donovan said. “There’ll be programs that I’m sure will be shut down for 14 days. I myself scheduled 10 games — if I can get five games in without a hitch or a hiccup, I’ll be pretty satisfied, just to get kids out and get them going.”

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Wooing baseball players back 

Coaches are prepared to navigate smaller turnouts, because they expect some coaches and players to opt out of the spring season due to COVID safety concerns. One of the challenges that North Jersey youth baseball and softball teams face is getting players back after a lost season.

Carmine Conti, state director for Little League, said 35% of the 300 individual leagues that make up the state program canceled their seasons in 2020. The league typically serves 7,000 to 9,000 youth athletes, ages 5 to 16.

“Little League struggled with getting kids on the field during 2020. A lot of leagues in New Jersey — especially the harder-hit areas of the state — were very reluctant to run their programs,” Conti said. “So, that was, for us, a real struggle.”

Now, some leagues are weighing whether to push opening day to the end of April because registration has been slow, said Conti, who oversees leagues in Hudson and parts of Essex counties. But registration hasn’t been slow everywhere.

“We’re seeing in some areas a surge in registration, where kids are looking to get back to playing,” Conti said. “A lot of kids, obviously, are not in the classroom, so the interaction with friends in a safe environment” is harder. “On a baseball field, you’re pretty well spread out.”

A boost for one basketball program

In some instances last year, when a child’s season was canceled and parents still wanted to get the child a chance to play, they found an alternative program. That provided a boost to Hoop Heaven, a basketball organization that operates facilities in Waldwick, Whippany and Bridgewater.

Mitch Storch, who founded Hoop Heaven and is one of its owners, said league membership over the winter was higher than normal because athletes had fewer leagues to turn to. Many basketball leagues, including Catholic Youth Organization and recreation and travel leagues, shut down because they did not have access to school gymnasiums for their programs since schools were shuttered due to COVID, Storch said. Because Hoop Heaven has its own facilities, it picked up some of the business from those cancellations.

Either way, this past year hasn’t been easy for the sports business.

“Overall, business got crushed in 2020. We’re hoping to resume to a sustainable level in the spring,” Storch said. “I don’t know if it’ll be as good, because, like everyone else, in order to have more teams, you need more gym time, and schools are still not renting to outside groups.

“Because they won’t even have their own students in there for schooling, I’m not sure they want unmasked players using the courts at night and the weekends,” he said.

Right now, Hoop Heaven is beginning its spring season indoors — as it does every year. However, last year the organization for the first time moved its programs outdoors.

“We saw that if anything was going to happen, it was going to be outdoors,” Storch said. “So we bought portable baskets, we lined parking lots, we secured outdoor courts wherever we could find them throughout northern New Jersey. We partnered with a tournament operator, and we ran tournaments and leagues from July through October outside.”

The organization is ready to do that again, he added, because some players enjoyed it. Being outside also means more families can attend games, instead of one or two parents per child to abide with COVID indoor gathering regulations. That matters, Storch said, since part of young athletes’ experience in any sport is seeing their parents or relatives in the stands supporting them.

“Youth sports are such an important part of mental health for kids,” Storch said. “It’s not just basketball. It’s volleyball, soccer, hockey, swimming. I think it’s so important that private places like us exist that give the outlet to these parents. Because I see so much frustration of parents whose kids aren’t in school, and wanting their kids to be somewhere.”

Scaled-back volleyball

In Garfield, several sports are run through the city’s Boys & Girls Club, including basketball, volleyball, baseball, football and cheerleading. Shane Sudol, the club’s chief executive, said the organization halted sports last year, affecting hundreds of kids. The club has been cautious but is ramping up for baseball and volleyball this spring.

“It’s trying to create that balance — a safe environment for the coaches, the kids, the parents, but at the same time making sure that it’s still fun and enjoyable,” Sudol said. “I think we had a lot of dark days in the last year or so. But, you know, it’s not going away, right? We still have to be prudent and diligent in the sanitizing and social distancing.”

Over the next two weeks, parents will be registering their children for either baseball or volleyball, with seasons in full swing by April. Sudol expects a smaller turnout, and so far registrations have been slow. Garfield schools are shifting this week to a hybrid model, meaning parents are juggling several decisions about their children’s well-being amid COVID at one time.

“A lot of the parents we’re talking with, they’re overwhelmed with that decision,” Sudol said. “I think they’ve just got a lot on their plate.”

Garfield’s volleyball program will be scaled down. Before the pandemic, the program used the club’s gym, as well as two school gymnasiums in the city. However, this year the season will be run only out of the club. Depending on how many kids enroll, the season may be split between age groups, with one season from April through mid-May and another from mid-May through June. 

“Ultimately, the goal of the club is to provide the safest environment that we can within the restrictions. We’re going to think long and hard, but we’re going to be prepared,” Sudol said. “Safety will be the main priority, and we just hope that the fun and team camaraderie follow suit.”

Melanie Anzidei is a reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: anzidei@northjersey.com

Twitter: @melanieanzidei