There’s a good chance local high school athletes won’t be cooped up at home for long. The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) announced its plan for the 2021 spring high school sports season last week.
The CIAC approved it March 10 and met virtually with athletic directors across the state the following morning for a breakdown of the plan. It highlights several rules and guidelines that each sport must follow to keep players, coaches and staff safe.
The plan addresses Department of Public Health recommendations that intermittent and infrequent direct contact sports “should consider adopting masking wearing, cohorting, and rule changes” when outdoors. These sports include boys and girls lacrosse, boys volleyball, baseball, softball, track and field and doubles tennis.
The only sport that requires a mask be worn during active competition is boys volleyball, which is indoors. Outdoor sports athletes will not be required to wear masks, but can if they want. The CIAC is also requiring a 14-day isolation period prior to the return of an athlete testing positive for COVID-19, as it did in the fall.
All practices are allowed to start on March 27, with pitchers and catchers in baseball starting March 20. The first games of the season are set for April 10 with the state tournament slated for early June.
Hamden High School Athletic Director, Tom Dyer, is thrilled for the season to start.
“I’m really happy and excited for the kids really,” Dyer said. “There’s a lot of work to be done that goes into, as an athletic director, getting ready for this.”
Dyer said that he felt confident last year this spring sports season would happen. Yet, he is getting excited for the upcoming seasons and is ready to adapt to the new rules.
“This is really how the whole year has went so far,” Dyer said. “It’s just ever changing and we just gotta think on our feet and be ready to make some adjustments to keep our kids safe…Whatever our student athletes need to be able to play and play safely, we will do our best to get it out there for ‘em so we can make sure that happens.”
The CIAC is not allowing gum chewing or seeds in baseball and made an adjustment to the face off in boys lacrosse, limiting the amount of time athletes are spent close together.
Dyer mentioned that his athletes will do whatever it takes to play.
“To be honest these kids would wear Unicorn helmets if they had to,” said Dyer.
Chris Borelli, a varsity baseball coach in Hamden says his team is “psyched” to return to the field.
“They’re obviously excited to get back out there and play. Our whole kind of program has been thrown out of whack,” said Borelli. “We really haven’t had much time together as a team in just about two years so I think everybody excited to get back, get back together, you know the comradery that we missed out on it and just the opportunity to compete together I think everyone is looking forward to.”
Borelli is optimistic the season will carry out without any infection-related cancelations, noting he will still continue to stress the importance of risk avoidance.
“When I meet with my guys and when I tell them I say listen, if we get shut down, it’s 14 days in a seven/eight-week season,” Borelli said. “So that’s something that I gotta make sure that our guys are, you know, we’re all on the same page with, we’re all being careful and we’re all doing things we need to do.
Borelli says he is going to advise his players to wear masks as much as possible.
“We don’t have to wear them in game unless they’re in the dugout, but I’m gonna say to my guys during our normal practice drills It may not be a bad idea to wear them just as an extra precaution,” Borelli explained. “If that’s what we gotta do to get on the field then you know we’ll do it.”
