A sports season with masks

"It is going to be what it is," Zach Scott, assistant Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School basketball coach said. "We need to do our part to keep sports going this season. We as coaches are going to be wearing masks the whole time and we are going to do what we can to to make sure this finishes like fall did. (Scott is also the head HEM football coach)."

Scott said that means adhering to rules guiding attendance.

"That means our fans and everybody that attends a game has to wear a mask," Scott said. "If that is the least we have to do so that our kids can play, that is what we need to do. It isn't a political statement and, at this point, we are all just trying to help each other."

HEM head basketball coach Cliff Jones agrees with Scott's words.

"Whatever we have to do as far as the masks are concerned. They might be uncomfortable, but if it is the price we have to pay to be able to have a season, it's what we have to do," Jones said. "I think last year we all saw what it was like to lose a season with track. We had boys and girls really put in hard work at their practices and then, next thing, the season is shut down."

Jones said the season is not assured to continue as time goes by.

"We have put in a week of practice now but, in the back of our minds, there is that fear we could be shut down at any time," Jones said. "So we have really been harping on following the protocol. Whether we believe in it or agree with it is irrelevant. This is what we have to do to have a season. If we want to do what is best for our kids, then we will follow the guidelines."

Jones knows that there are skeptics on the use of masks to counter the pandemic, but he said the rules to attend games are the rules.

"At some point, everybody is going to have to buy into the fact that this is what we have to do," Jones said. "Hopefully we aren't going to have a group of spectators that think these rules don't apply to them, because from the school's point of view, there will be zero tolerance."

HEM Athletic Director Russ Wiggam said the school is getting constant updates from WHSAA (Wyoming High School Athletic Association) and Carbon County School District No. 2.

"We just had a meeting from the superintendent in a phone conference about this situation, to make sure we are all on the same page," Wiggam said. "Any moment something could change and we would have to be ready."

He said, so far, when attendees to sports events come without masks they are told a mask must be worn.

"We tell them politely they have to have them," Wiggam said. "The other night we had a junior high wrestling meet and a couple people wanted to pull the masks down, but we had to tell them to put them back up, even though they were by themselves. We told them it was not only district policy but also state policy. They were pretty good and pulled them up."

Wiggam said if people were too reluctant to follow guidelines, they should not come to the events.

"It is a choice that they are making about do they care about the kids being able to play sports or do they care only about themselves," Wiggam said. "Nobody really wants to wear masks everywhere they go, but if the rules are there, we have to abide by them."

He said schools have to be vigilant about making sure masks are worn, because all it would take is for the state to be informed twice a school isn't following protocol and then sports is done in that school.

Wiggam said food and drink is not allowed to be consumed in the stands any longer because masks have to stay up continuously.

"I think it is great that the kids have the opportunity to play right now and it isn't worth threatening that," Wiggam said. "It really is about the kids."

Scott reiterated Wiggam's thoughts.

"If we had to, we could play without fans. Of course, I wouldn't want to do that," Scott said. "But we have to remember these rules are so the kids can play and that is what is important, the kids. That is what is important."