‘High-risk’ school sports to resume in Suffolk

Suffolk County has given a green light to “high-risk” sports to begin this spring, after the state on Friday updated its guidance for high school sports to allow local jurisdictions to make that decision.

County Executive Steve Bellone announced the county’s decision at a news conference this afternoon in Blydenburgh Park in Smithtown.

“We will have high-risk sports and have our student athletes back on the field where they belong,” Bellone said.

The county executive said the county health department worked over the weekend with the school superintendents association and Section XI to develop a plan to allow sports classified by the state at high risk to begin practice and competition effective Feb. 1.

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association has modified the sports calendar to have high-risk fall sports such as football, soccer and volleyball begin a “Fall II” season March 1.

The season for traditional spring sports will begin this year on April 19. Under the new state guidance, spring high-risk sports such as lacrosse, will be played, as well as moderate-risk sports such as baseball.

The Riverhead Board of Education voted unanimously on Dec. 8 to fund spring interscholastic sports and high school clubs as of March 1. The funding was specific for the number of coaches required for each of the spring sports teams at varsity, junior varsity and middle school levels. In addition, the deadline for registering Fall II season sports has passed. As such, Riverhead teams will not be participating in the Fall II season.

Suffolk’s plan “starts with testing,” Bellone said. “Testing is critical,” he said because it allows for contact tracing, and isolation. The county’s plan will require weekly testing with 15-minute rapid tests, a county spokesperson said after the news conference. The county will be providing the tests to the school districts.

Districts will be required to take temperatures of players and coaches prior to practices and games, Bellone said. They will also be required to obtain attestations that players and coaches are free of COVID-19 symptoms.

Teams should minimize equipment-sharing, play outdoors whenever possible and wear masks during play “where possible — but definitely when not in play, Bellone said.

The county will ask students to take a pledge recognizing individual responsibility in preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

The state guidance directs local health authorities to consider the three factors in authorizing or continuing to prohibit high- risk sports. These factors “may weigh against permitting such activities,” according to the state health department.

The three factors are:

• whether there has been a more-transmissible variant of COVID-19 identified in the area;
• local rates of COVID-19 transmission or rate of positivity; and
• local ability to monitor and enforce compliance.

The more-transmissible U.K. variant has been identified in Suffolk County and while the county’s testing positivity rate has been declining, it is still over 7% and the Long Island Region’s positivity rate is the highest in the state.

At a media briefing this afternoon, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said state health officials were examining the data in the Long Island and Finger Lakes regions as well as in the Bronx, which Cuomo described as trouble spots. He indicated the state might be taking action in these areas and said he would be addressing this further in a few days.

The new state guidance regarding high-risk sports seems to leave the decision solely in local hands for all regions that have reached or surpassed Phase 3 of the state’s reopening guidelines.