COVID-19 has caused drastic shifts in our lives over the last 10 months. Much has been canceled or rescheduled, and sports are not an exception. Fall and winter sports have been postponed at Cleveland with spring sports being expected to do the same. Still, it looks as though real seasons for our school’s many sports are still scheduled to take place, just not at their regular times.
“OSAA has modified the seasons to maintain a somewhat traditional rotation of approximately six weeks each. This year we will rotate from fall to spring to winter, different than our usual, fall, winter, spring. We are working with a lot of variables, but currently in the final planning phases for fall sports,” said Kellie Cook, Cleveland’s athletic director. The “fall” season is currently happening and will end April 11th. The “spring” season starts on April 5th and will go until May 23rd. The “winter” season begins May 10th and will go through June 27th. Games and matches will still be played against other schools, but there will be fewer.
Additionally, practices for sports, even indoor ones like basketball, volleyball, and wrestling, are happening at the Cleveland field right now to avoid close contact and stale air; both of which can contribute to the spread of COVID-19. One student who does wrestling told me, “we aren’t allowed to be up close and actually practicing the sport, so right now we are just doing conditioning and workouts until things change.”
“Students are wearing masks and we are staying apart,” Cook said, describing the practices. “We are focusing on safety and providing opportunities for our students to be active and social, from a safe distance. Practices are focused on fitness, skills, and drills. Programming runs Monday through Thursday at the CHS stadium,” she said.
Just like most things, the future is unclear, but Cleveland and OSAA staff are making sure that students still have the ability to safely participate in sports.