GHSA offers plan for sports

Published 10:30 am Friday, May 22, 2020

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

The Georgia High School Association’s board of trustees met on Thursday and gave the go-ahead for voluntary sports activities to resume on June 8, with plenty of guidelines in place.

The list of guidelines teams must follow can be found on the GHSA website.

There can’t be more than 20 student-athletes in a specific sport working out at one time, and students and coaches can’t change groups during the workout.

Also, teams won’t be allowed to use balls or sports-specific equipment.

Use of locker rooms and shower facilities won’t be allowed, weight equipment must be cleaned before each workout and sanitized between use by each student, each student must have his own water bottle and use of water fountains won’t be allowed , hand sanitizer should be readily available ad easily accessible, students should practice social distancing, at least 15 minutes should be scheduled between groups to allow for disinfecting the facility, and no visitors will be allowed.

Also, the GHSA has put together a questionnaire student-athletes have to fill out related to COVID 19, and coaches have an athlete monitoring form they’ll have to continually update.

Robin Hines, the executive director of the GHSA, said in a letter to member schools that “the plan is restrictive and provides for conditioning only. As the data related to COVID-19 continues to improve, restrictions may be reduced after input from our health care professionals and guidance from our governor.”

Hines added that coaches must “keep in mind that member schools may be more restrictive than the guidance but may not be less restrictive. There has never been a more critical time for athletic departments, school administration, and system level administrators to work together.”

OF NOTE: For more information, go to ghsa.net