As high school sports workouts begin in SC, no easy answers to 3 pressing questions
As high school fall sports teams across the state begin summer workouts in compliance with the South Carolina High School League’s Phase 1 coronavirus safety guidelines, some critical questions loom.
How do athletes, coaches and parents know the league’s safety guidelines are working? And, if the guidelines are working, will that affect when the fall sports season starts?
In an interview with The Herald, SCHSL Commissioner Jerome Singleton addressed these questions and other issues.
What are the SCHSL’s standards for progress in summer workouts?
Singleton said the league relies on “triggers” that will move summer workouts from Phase 1 — athletes practicing social distancing, not sharing sport-specific equipment, coaches wearing masks and other standards — to Phase 2 and Phase 3.
“I don’t know that the guidelines work or not, but the triggers will help us move into the next phase,” Singleton said. “One is: We got the 6-foot social distancing that has been established by DHEC right now. We’ve got the 10-member gatherings, which have been supported by DHEC. If those are relaxed ... then that helps us move into another phase.
“What occurs in the general society of South Carolina and what occurs at the schools, it’s all kind of mixed in together. What impacts us is going to impact them, and what impacts them is going to impact us.”
Last week was the first week schools across the state, including Clover High School, could host summer workouts. Coronavirus cases increased. York County added 54 COVID-19 cases over the weekend, S.C. health officials reported, which punctuated a record-breaking week since the pandemic landed in this state in March.
Also last week, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster said the answers to lowering the positive cases of coronavirus is “individual responsibility, not mandates from the government,” according to a report by The State newspaper.
Singleton said the Phase 1 guidelines address the coronavirus concerns in the safest way possible.
“We lean on DHEC to kind of give us some guidance for what is safe and what could be a bit challenging,” he said.
Are SCHSL Phase 1 results measurable, enforceable?
The SCHSL does not require schools to report to the league any students or coaches who test positive for coronavirus. Thus, the SCHSL does not know if, or how many, participating student-athletes fail the required COVID-19 symptom screenings.
And without that data, it can be very difficult to monitor how Phase 1 is going.
Even with that data, there are confounding variables that muddy the picture:
- Athletes could contract the virus outside the practice field and bring it back to the workout facility;
- Athletes also could have the virus but be asymptomatic, something the screenings cannot detect.
Singleton said DHEC has contact tracers — people specifically tasked with reaching out to those who contract coronavirus. Tracers interview people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and determine who may have been exposed to the virus. Contact tracers then notify those people of their potential exposure, monitor them for symptoms and provide guidance to help them stay well, while limiting spread of the virus.
DHEC has done contact tracing before and typically has 20 contact tracers on staff to help fight diseases, such as tuberculosis and hepatitis, according to the agency.
DHEC had identified 1,800 contact tracers around the state as of early May to help track COVID-19 outbreaks, according to a press release from the agency.
Enforcement of the league’s Phase 1 guidelines also is difficult.
The SCHSL doesn’t have the manpower to be in every school to ensure students and coaches follow the rules. Thus, much of the enforcement responsibility appears to fall on the coaches and other leaders in each school.
That doesn’t mean enforcement isn’t happening.
On June 14, the Union County School District announced that a Union County High School coach tested positive for COVID-19 and that workouts had been postponed “until on or after July 6,” per a tweet from the school’s official Twitter account.
The league hasn’t provided any details for Phase 2 or Phase 3.
Will high school fall sports start on time?
Singleton told The Herald it’s too early to predict when the fall sports season will begin, particularly because it’s still unclear when, or in what capacity, schools across the state will return. And “if there’s not school, then of course there’s no athletics,” Singleton said.
“It would be tough to make those predictions right now,” he said. “I mean, something has to change. If 6-foot separation has to stay in place, what can you play? There’s nothing you can play.”
Singleton also said different sports may start at different times. Non-contact sports like golf and swimming could start earlier than football.
“Does it affect all sports the same way? It may not have to,” he said. “But you can’t alter the way a game is played and still have an effective game going on.”
This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 7:39 AM.
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