June 4, 2020
Many Kentucky youth will be glad to be back on the mound and field this month as sports are back on in the state starting in less than two weeks.
Just like in every other area of life, COVID-19 restrictions has changed the way youth sports can take place and will cause it to be a unique season.
First and foremost, these sports are only allowed to happen as long as social distancing, no touching and low sharing actions can take place.
Even then, only some sports can take place at first.
On June 15, only low-touch indoor and outdoor sports may practice. These include baseball, softball, tee-ball, gymnastics, solo-dance/solo-ballet, tap dance, swimming, diving, bowling, golf, archery, track and field, cross-country, biking, tennis, mini-golf and horseback riding.
These low-touch sport practices must be in small groups of only 10 youths with one adult coach per group.
High-touch are only able to participate in physical fitness training in groups of 10 on June 15. These sports are football, flag football, basketball, cheerleading, tandem or team dance, volleyball, karate or martial arts, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, ice hockey and wrestling.
On June 29, low-touch sport competitions can take place with up to 50 spectators adhering to social distancing.
High-touch sports can begin practicing and shouldn’t be considered “full contact” and must only take place in groups of 10 with one coach per group. The date in which high-touch sports can begin competitions is undetermined.
There are also several recommendations for how practices, trainings and competitions should go, such as no high-fives, no sharing equipment, no dugouts, staggered or limited carpooling, sanitization, face coverings for those not participating in the sport and no travelling outside of the community.
No travelling certainly eliminates travelling all-star or club teams, but Beshear has encouraged participation in little league, city leagues or something similar rather than travel ball teams.
Jacob Burton, Adair County Little League president for the 2020 season, said there are around 300 children still participating in this year’s season. With safety measures in place, resuming their baseball and tee-ball season would give families something exciting to do.
“We figured it was for the best for the children and everybody involved to get everybody back out and out of the house,” said Burton.
He added that continuing the season would eliminate the issue of refunding every participant’s money and the sponsor money.
Families were given a two week period where they could receive a refund or put a credit toward the 2021 season and Burton said about 40 families chose to do one of those.
Burton explained that they are following all protocol given by the state and have an individual plan going forward on how to keep participants and families safe.
In addition to changing how they practice, tee-ball coaches are bringing in rubber mats for each individual child to help the children visualize where they should stand.
“It helps them to stay in their position and prevents them from dog piling every time a ball is hit,” said Burton.
Other steps to prevent virus spread are to have the first round of games start at 5:30 p.m. and the second round at 7:15 p.m. Games will last an hour and 15 minutes and then everyone must completely clear out for the second round to prevent overlap between games.
Concession stands will not have freshly cooked foods and only grab and go snacks.
Parents will be held accountable for making sure their child has not had a fever in the last 48 hours before they come to practice or a game.
“We’ve gone out of our way to make sure it worked out accordingly,” said Burton.
By Anna Buckman
Assistant Editor
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