After Albemarle County Public Schools announced the system would revert to all virtual instruction Wednesday, it became clear that interscholastic sports would also be put on pause again at Albemarle, Western and Monticello High.
That outcome is a result of the way the school board’s policy on reopening stages is written — in Stage 1 and Stage 2, there are no in-person athletics.
This comes at a time when, like a lot of instances during the COVID-19 pandemic, well-educated, smart people are coming to different conclusions working from the same information. There aren’t necessarily right answers, and pretending like there are is misguided.
The science is still evolving quickly on COVID-19. Just weeks ago, athletic cancellation seemed imminent for the Virginia Beach schools, but according to that system’s spokeswoman, Sondra Woodard, via the Virginian Pilot, “The division consulted the Virginia Beach Department of Health as well as advising physicians to determine that community-level transmission rate metrics were not the best to use and instead use school-level transmission data.”
The Virginia Beach school board subsequently reversed its decision based on the school-level transmission data. Woodard told the Pilot, “The metrics we should be considering are not metrics developed in July and August, when we knew little about school transmission.” Of course, just a few miles across the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, the Peninsula District canceled winter sports earlier this week.
When science does not give us a clear answer, we are often left to let people make a personal choice. And based on several systems in Northern Virginia, Virginia Beach and Roanoke City Schools choosing one path (all virtual with in-person athletics), the Peninsula District choosing a another option (cancellation of winter) and Buckingham and Richmond City still another (fall sports already out) with varying COVID-19 numbers in each locality, there isn’t a clear and obvious choice here.
After nearly two decades covering high school sports, mostly in Central Virginia but also in Texas and Tennessee, I’ve learned a lot. But one truth that stands out is that for a lot of students, sports aren’t optional, they are essential. I have watched countless kids graduate or improve grades or simply keep showing up just because they wanted to keep playing. This isn’t about money — after all, essentially no fans means no gate receipts. It isn’t about scholarships, as travel sports have largely been humming along to fill that void or, in the case of some colleges, the extra year of eligibility has squeezed a lot of this year’s seniors out of scholarship opportunities anyway.
This is about identity, a sense of belonging and mental health for a lot of student-athletes. A chance to suit up and play with teammates they’ve battled with for years or that they just met this week. A chance to create bonds that last and lead to receiving a Christmas card from halfway across the country, just like I did a few weeks ago because I once played on the same offensive line as a guy I didn’t know before we strapped on shoulder pads.
The athletic directors at every area school, including Albemarle, Monticello and Western, have worked hard to develop explicit mitigation plans to keep athletes and coaches safe. I’ve seen some of the plans and seen similar mitigation plans in action, and the work these administrators have done is impressive. They’ve in many ways transformed the high school sports experience while keeping the soul of competition intact. Is it going to be enough for everyone? No, it isn’t, but sports have always been about choices. A choice to try out. A choice to work out in the offseason. A choice to try something new and different.
When the decision isn’t clear, everything gets a little murkier. Which brings us to a civics lesson: When the situation is murky, it becomes important to make your voice heard, no matter where you land on the issue. We’re a high school sports magazine, so you’d think we’d come down hard in favor of playing, but, look, we’ve been dealing with this since March. We’ve been finding ways to work around it, and we’ll keep moving forward. We’re concerned about safety and community spread and we understand the complexity of the issue. But we’re not the ones who aren’t getting to play. Tomorrow at the Albemarle County School Board Meeting, there’s room for public comment.
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