When is the Right Time to Return?

School administrators and IHSAA officials are scrambling to make an informed decision on when to resume high school sports.

Commentary
By Keith Edmonds

COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on most of the things that affect our daily lives and routines. Whether it’s entertainment, leisure time or dining out, our “normal” has been replaced by the “new normal” not only locally but worldwide. We are being told to “socially distance” and wear protective masks to protect us from each other.
As we seek to find some degree of normalcy in our day-to-day lives, there are important decisions that must be made in Fort Wayne. As we approach the fall and the reopening of our schools, many are beginning to ask: When is the right or appropriate time to resume fall sports?
High school athletics have been absent in our area (and state) since March 2020 and left us to wonder “What might have been?” with our area schools and the seniors of the class of 2020. When our world was unfortunately forced to shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, we were left paralyzed with a myriad of emotions that have made us ask: How can we move forward fighting an enemy we can’t see, one that initially killed only the most vulnerable populations in society?
Those groups were people aged 65 and older, the poor and marginalized living in densely populated substandard conditions, African Americans, and those with pre-existing medical conditions. We are beginning to see in data that the virus is now cutting a destructive path through our younger populations with an increased force, making the critical decision of returning to high school athletics even tougher.
Indiana’s school sports governing body, the IHSAA, has seen what happened to our schools’ athletic programs through the end of winter and spring. The IHSAA is now looking at all the variables in deciding whether to move forward with fall sports or continue into the school year without the revenue of one of the most dominant sports -- high school football.
Other fall sports must be considered as well, but considering that the loss of our beloved state basketball tournament cost the state over a half million dollars, the loss of high school football could easily top $1 million.
Looking at the state’s data for high school sports, it is commonly accepted that football and basketball are the two “staple sports” of a school’s revenue-making activities. With schools coming off an abbreviated boys basketball season, no spring sports and the possible loss of football, these are tenuous times for athletic directors, principals, schools and coaches.
IHSAA commissioner Bobby Cox is stepping down later this summer, and his replacement, Paul Neidig, is already hard at work with the IHSAA’s three-phase plan to return to high school sports this fall.
“I’m very confident sports will return, but I also say we need to be nimble,” Neidig said. “This COVID-19 is a new path for us. We don’t know all the ins and outs of it yet, but I’m confident we will return to the field in the fall. If education doesn’t happen, then we don’t have sports. We need to keep that first and foremost.”
This dilemma also faces incoming Fort Wayne Community Schools Superintendent Mark Daniel, who replaced retired Dr. Wendy Robinson on July 1. He must navigate not only the return of school sports but a strategic plan for a safe reopening of FWCS schools as a whole.
As July progresses there will certainly be a clamoring from our community about what will occur. From what I have ascertained, this is the current tentative plan being proposed by the IHSAA:
Phase 1 started July 6, when teams will be allowed to meet back up on school property. Commissioner Neidig says that’s when coaches can start having athletes lift weights and do other conditioning, with some restrictions. (For example, weight rooms can only be at 50% capacity at one time.) Those restrictions will be lifted July 20. That’s when Phase 2 begins, and teams can officially start practices.
On August 3, girls golf, which normally starts earlier than other fall sports, can begin competition. Phase 3 begins August 15, when all other sports, like football, volleyball, soccer and cross country, will start competition.
The pandemic has put high school sports in strange new territory without a road map. At this point all we can do is trust that IHSAA and school officials will make the safest decisions for all base