Southwick schools reverse course, will allow modified fall sports

Sept. 24, 2020 | Dennis Hackett
dennis@thereminder.com

SOUTHWICK – After the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District School Committee voted to postpone fall sports at its previous meeting, the committee rescinded the vote and will now allow modified fall sports.

As a result of the new decision, students will be permitted to participate in golf interscholastically and soccer, field hockey and cross country intramurally, while postponing unified basketball and volleyball to the second fall season.

While the district’s Athletic Director David Sanschagrin originally brought forward a presentation in favor of interscholastic play with all athletes learning remotely, the committee agreed there were too many holes in the plan.

“I can’t vote for anything if I don’t know exactly how that is going to happen. I would need to see data similar to what the school district did from families guaranteeing that they could do that safely. The school district had to put out a transportation plan to get our kids to and from school, and I would need to see the same thing,” School Committee Vice Chair Pamela Petschke said.

School Committee Chair Jeffrey Houle added that with any decision, people had to accept that things are going to be different because of the pandemic.

“We are in the middle of a pandemic; this is not business as usual. There is going to be compromise until this situation is cleaned up. The school is going to look different and the traditions we normally have are going to change, there is no way around it,” Houle said.

One of Houle’s biggest concerns about playing with other schools was the fact that several districts in their bubble are fully remote and was in favor of offering intramural sports instead.

“Let them practice, let them play against each other, but it’s here in our district. One of the hardest facts I’m struggling to get by is that four of the six districts in our bubble are fully remote,” he said.

Superintendent Jennifer Willard said that she was in favor of intramural sports if the MIAA guidelines were followed.

“I believe that extracurriculars are very important in the lives of our students and it’s what gets them to school every day. I would like our students to be able to have that team feeling if they played on our grounds intramurally. I need to see them following the MIAA protocols,” she said.

One of the overarching concerns the committee had in approving sports was equity for all students.

“I think the biggest concern right now is equity. For the same token that we can’t force kids to be remote I think we’re going to get ourselves into trouble forcing kids into the intramural side of the game when they have the potential to be eligible for a varsity sport,” Houle said.

He added that transportation liability would also be another hurdle in terms equity.

Ultimately the committee unanimously approved a motion to allow intramural sports if the athletes follow the guidelines.

Along with the motion, the district’s athletic director David Sanschagrin will also be looking into potentially integrating the intramural sports interscholastically later in the fall.

As a result of allowing intramural sports, Willard added that the district would be looking at options to allow other extracurricular activities.

“I know that there’s some we cannot do right now, for example musical theater is not allowed, band has some very strict guidelines where you have to play outside and in New England that’s not feasible. It would be on a case by case basis and outdoor would be the qualifying factor right now,” she said.

The Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District School Committee next meets on Sept. 29.

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