Maine winter sports starting dates at risk as COVID-19 numbers rise

By Ernie Clark, Bangor Daily News Staff

The recent surge in COVID-19 cases throughout the Northeast has prompted officials in several states to reconsider starting dates for their potential winter high school sports seasons.

Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Vermont are among states that have pushed back their already delayed starts to practices or games with no contests scheduled, in most cases, until January 2021.

Maine also delayed the start of the winter sports season. The Maine Principals’ Association on Nov. 6 announced that it would allow one week of skill-building drills or conditioning beginning Dec. 7 followed by the start of formal practices for all winter sports, except wrestling, on Dec. 14. Competition against other schools can begin no sooner than Jan. 11, 2021.

But since then the number of school-related COVID-19 outbreaks in Maine has increased markedly as part of the continuing spikes in new cases and coronavirus-related deaths in the state.

Five of the state’s 16 counties — Androscoggin, Franklin, Somerset, Washington and York — are designated as “yellow” under the Maine Department of Education’s color-coded COVID-19 school health advisory system.

High schools in those counties may not participate in any team-related activities until after the county attains “green” status. The only contact allowed between coaches and athletes must be virtual, according to Mike Burnham, executive director of the MPA interscholastic division.

With all of this going on, how firm are Maine’s winter sports starting dates?

“Since the beginning when we released those tentative dates, we have said that they are tentative at best and subject to change with what’s happening with the virus,” Burnham said.

No announcement has been made about possible further delays in winter high school sports, but the situation is being monitored closely.

“On a daily basis we’re looking at what our policies are, what seems to be working, what more we could be doing, and we are aggressively doing that, especially in light of the increased number of COVID-19 cases here in Maine,” Department of Health and Human Services commissioner Jeanne Lambrew said Monday.

Old Town High School on Wednesday announced that it is delaying its team tryouts/practices by one week, to Dec. 21. Athletic administrator Jeremy Bousquet cited the rise in COVID-19 cases, holiday travel and the overall health of students, staff and members of the community in making the decision.

Old Town athletes will be able to begin receiving virtual coaching and guidance on Dec. 7.

“We also are in active review of what’s going on in different states with school sports,” Lambrew said. “We’ll be talking with different school officials to see what they’re thinking of planning with regard to school sports.”

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday that indoor high school and youth sports will be suspended until at least Jan. 2 because of rising COVID-19 outbreaks in youth sports. Youth and high school basketball, ice hockey and swimming are among the sports affected.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott on Nov. 24 announced that the start of school sports there are paused until further notice, with that status subject to weekly review. High school winter sports practices in Vermont had been scheduled to start Nov. 30.

The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Council Board of Control on Nov. 17 postponed the start of practices for winter sports to Jan. 19, 2021.

Also on Nov. 17, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association delayed the start of the season for its high-risk winter sports until Jan. 4. That includes basketball, competitive cheering, ice hockey and wrestling.

“We’re looking actively at what goes on with sports [in other states],” Lambrew said. “That’s just one other review we do on a regular basis, but I will say that just going back to the evidence and the experience we always look back to see — do we have any evidence that the restrictions that we put into place have been effective before we continue them, as well as whether or not we think that delaying the start of any new activity is worthwhile.”

The Maine CDC on Wednesday morning reported 237 new COVID-19 cases and four more deaths, two days after a state single-day record of 20 coronavirus-related deaths were reported.

Maine’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 169.4, up from 168.4 a day ago, down from 220.4 a week ago and up from 78.7 a month ago.