Read on Twitter
I’ve thought a lot about the decision made on Friday by the AIA, and wanted to simmer down a bit before I put any of those thoughts in a thread on here...this’ll be a long thread, so here goes:
1) Let’s tackle the biggest elephant in the room first...football playoffs happening in the packed stands with people unmasked (ignoring rules or just not enforced to begin with). It’s tough to see this call made just a few weeks after watching that occur.
2a) Are kids any safer since a ton of them will just go play club somewhere? Just because the AIA season isn’t happening, doesn’t mean these kids won’t play the next 3 months. They’ll find club teams, parents to coach, leagues to join, etc...
2b) Let’s not act like 4 leagues didn’t just pop up that’ll start next weekend or the one after...or that tourney directors didn’t haphazardly just add in HS divisions to tourneys over this weekend (still hot about that one, total trash action if you did it)...
2c) If they aren’t playing with their HS teams, now they’re around 4-5 different teams every weekend with 10-12 different kids on each of those teams. So you’re looking at 40-60 kids who would be near each of the kids on one club team, for one weekend...
2d) Explain to me how that’s better in any way “for the kids” than them being around their own teammates only, and playing a max of 3 different teams a week? Besides the obvious response of “now the AIA isn’t liable for anything that happens”...
3) Don’t set the hard date if you’re just going to just cancel. Y’all put the disclaimer in place that unless the state shut down, Jan. 18 was the hard start date. Now, obviously things can change, but maybe just don’t set that hard line in the first place?...
4a) Everyone also knew cases were going up over holidays. That was expected from mass exposure to family members over a 2 week stretch that was inevitable to avoid. People aren’t gonna quarantine on a mass scale, they’re inherently selfish...
4b) That was the whole point of coming back to virtual learning the first two weeks of school in the second semester, for some districts. To help mitigate exposure risk for others after everyone knew families would still get together over the holidays...
5a) Do we have access to ANY data to back up the thought that high school sports will cause increased outbreaks? Can we check case numbers in states who are currently competing and see if there’s a correlation?...
5b) If there is data, I would love to have seen that included when the decision was made...if there hasn’t been any collected, that seems like an oversight in my opinion. Even something as simple as tracking start dates in states to cases reported would give us some idea...
6a) Why not start and then pause, instead of cancelling altogether? If the season began as scheduled, and things didn’t improve or started to look worse, you can always halt actions then...what happens in two weeks if case numbers drift down and hospitalizations do as well?...
6b) Then we’re stuck with the proverbial “shrug” emoji and still no season. This is just one alternative to outright cancellation, there were plenty more: varsity only games, play in masks, no fans in stands, spaced out benches, etc..
6c) Poll many of the coaches coaching, the players playing, or the parents who are in charge of their kids...and the results would probably lean towards being okay playing under the most strict conditions possible, to ensure a season start...
7a) One unknown effect here is how it will impact the kids who now might not get their season. What about kids from horrible home situations who NEED this season as an outlet, need the space and friends it provides, need the distraction from their home life?...
7b) Sure, practice and open gyms might be continuing...but will it be enough and will it be the same for them?
There’s a dozen other things that could’ve been listed here, and this thread could probably be 100+ tweets long...my bottom line is I think this decision was rushed and not correct. But I only speak for myself, not for anyone else...
...and I don’t have all of the info that they had when making this decision (at least I would hope they have a LOT more). But out of this one decision, there’s been a ton of action. Coaches, both boys and girls, along with AD’s rallying to find ways to get their kids a season...
...Coaches looking to create leagues for HS teams, groups looking to play the full season schedule as is, etc. Tons of things that show just how passionate this state is about HS basketball...
...And now my final thoughts for OUR program:
We will eagerly be waiting to see how this dust settles during this week before making any decisions. Our girls want to play, and we want to do so safely. We’ve been overly cautious during practices since November...
We will eagerly be waiting to see how this dust settles during this week before making any decisions. Our girls want to play, and we want to do so safely. We’ve been overly cautious during practices since November...
...Masks on all the time except for spaced out breathers. That’s in the weight room and on the court, even for running and full court stuff. Sanitizing multiple times throughout each workout. Sanitizing equipment all the time...
...For any upcoming games we will add in levels of precaution to ensure we do everything we can to both keep our kids in a more controlled environment, AND keep them safe while there...for us and our potential opponents...
...I don’t think any decision would have been the perfect one, and there are no doubt going to be battles from the opposing side no matter what was decided...
...However, I do think this decision hit the extreme right away, and will negatively impact the 30,000+ winter sports athletes here in AZ. Would starting the 18th have been a perfect situation? Maybe not, but the decision made is far from perfect.
