School Pulls The Plug On High Risk Winter Sports
Longtime HFCS Coach Lilac Reacts
by Doug La Rocque
On Tuesday, February 2, Hoosick Falls School District Superintendent Patrick Dailey issued the following statement, on the school district’s decision not to participate in any so called “high risk” winter sports.
On Friday, January 22 Governor Cuomo announced high-risk sports would be allowed to commence in New York schools effective Monday, February 1 subject to approval by county health departments. Rensselaer County officially approved high-risk sports soon after.
Over the past week, we have been in consultation with our school physician and additional medical professionals on the viability of safely offering high-risk sports. A review was made of current research on the transmission of COVID-19, guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), metrics on positivity rates, the number of positive cases in the community, requirements to offer each sport by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) and the protocols to safely manage the student-players, coaches, officials and venue. After very careful consideration, we have determined that we cannot safely allow high-risk sports competitions for the winter season at Hoosick Falls Central School District.
This was a difficult decision as sports offer significant physical, social and emotional benefits to players, but the health and safety of all students and staff are our first priority. We are working with individual coaches to allow skills and conditioning programs for the remainder of the winter season. All of our efforts for the next six weeks will be focused on organizing teams and competition for the Fall 2 season which tentatively begins March 8, pending the status of COVID-19 infections in our school, community and other surrounding league communities.
We know some of you may not agree with this decision, but many factors are taken into account that could impact both students and staff and we do not feel the benefits of allowing high-risk sports competitions justify the possible outcomes at this time.
Hoosick Falls Basketball Coach Mike Lilac has reacted to the decision. In a statement to The Eastwick Press he says “Above all, I feel terrible for the kids. They have been doing all that’s been asked of them for 10 months. The winter athletes in the higher risk sports have thought for 11 days now that they were set to begin their seasons. To have the goal posts keep moving on them is disheartening. There are obviously thousands of physicians around the country that believe these sports can be done safely. We see it happening in almost every state in the country. That makes it tough to explain it to the kids.
The biggest concern I have is with the mental health of our students. I see it every day and I see kids struggling. It is to the point now where I wonder if the damage we see being done to their mental health and social/emotional well-being should become a priority over what might happen related to the virus.”
Hoosick Falls has merged some sports programs with Tamarac (Brunswick School District), and The Eastwick Press asked their superintendent Dr. Angelina Maloney, if the HFCS decision impacts them at all, and if they plan to move ahead with a high risk sports program. She responded “Brunswick CSD has approved all high risk sports and is putting together a plan to test these participating athletes. The winter high risk sports were not merged with Hoosick Falls so it is not an issue. We stand with our neighboring school district and look forward to a time when they can compete again.”
In Schodack, the Maple Hill District is also proceeding with at least Basketball and Wrestling, noting on its website, basketball practice will begin on Wednesday, February 3 with Wrestling practice starting one day later on Thursday.