Clintonville players must follow covid guidelines
By Bert Lehman
Although the Clintonville School District is in the severe-risk category for COVID-19 and is 100% virtual learning, the football team will resume playing games in an effort to finish its 2020 season.
The school board approved the resumption of the football season when it met on Oct. 12.
The board had halted the season when it moved the district to all virtual learning.
Head coach Nick Winkler submitted a letter to the board asking that the season be resumed if team members followed guidelines spelled out in the letter.
Under the guidelines, team personnel, players and parents sign a mandatory contract stating they will follow all Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state and local guidelines regarding COVID-19.
This would include avoiding situations that could lead to “a greater risk of contracting and/or spreading the virus.”
Spectator restrictions
A maximum of two spectators per athlete could be present at home and away games affiliated with the CHS football team, according to the guidelines.
The guidelines also included the establishment of a fifth quarter that would allow junior varsity players to play a quarter following a varsity game instead of traveling for individual JV games; social distancing would be practiced and players must wear masks at all times on and off the field; players who have been in contact with a COVID-19 positive person or are showing symptoms will be quarantined; locker rooms and equipment would be sanitized after each practice and game; and athletes would have a weekly grade check.
During the public comments portion of the Oct. 12 meeting, Winkler also addressed the board.
“My purpose here is to find a way to work together and find solutions,” Winkler said. “I know you all have faced some pretty hard times and usually get some pretty hard criticism without a lot of solutions, so I feel like my job as the leader of that team is to get educated, find out how we can work together to give our student athletes the best opportunities that they can. These guys mean a lot to me, and my hope is that we can have a discussion of how we can make this work, and find ways to make it work.”
With practices canceled after the season was put on hold, football team members were invited to participate in virtual meetings to watch guest speakers. More than 30 team members participated.
“Those kids are looking for something to do,” said Shaun Liesch, district activities director.
Liesch said of the 18 schools in the Northeastern Conference and Bay Conference, there has been no student-to-student transmission of COVID-19.
“The cases have come from home, or some other source like that,” Liesch said. “It hasn’t been tracked back to the school.”
Liesch cited how other area school districts were handling their athletic programs. He said Shawano was currently under all virtual learning and still competing in all sports, as well as Manawa, Freedom, Denmark, Oconto and Bonduel.
Liesch said the Clintonville football team hoped to hold two practices the week of Oct. 12 and resume practicing every day on Oct. 19, in preparation for hopefully playing a game by the end of that week.
Fall preferred instead of spring
Liesch said the preference for the football team would be to not move the season to the spring due to a variety of factors, including field conditions because of Wisconsin weather in the spring.
The suggestion to cancel all the district’s junior varsity football games and add a “fifth quarter” to varsity games was made to limit travel to other cities. JV players would play the fifth quarter, which would allow them to play in game situations.
“It’s just one day of contact instead of two days against a similar school,” Liesch said.
Another factor against moving the football season to spring was the fact many of the schools that have done are a lot larger than Clintonville High School. If the district wanted to avoid playing larger schools, it would have to travel a lot further than it currently does for the fall season. He said comparable sized schools are 90 to 214 miles away from Clintonville if it were to play in the spring. The furthest school in Clintonville’s current conference is 87 miles away.
“I just don’t feel like those are feasible options, putting kids on a bus for two and a half hours or more,” Liesch said. “The comparable size and the travel restrictions, it just doesn’t look like we could get a semblance of a schedule for the spring, so we would miss out on a lot of opportunities for our boys. And I know that they’ve pushed really hard in hopes to continue the season.”
Further complicating the situation is that due to current COVID-19 guidelines, the district currently has to take two buses to games to allow for social distancing on the buses.
Liesch encouraged the board to listen to what the students want, and the steps they are willing to take to continue with the fall season.
Opposing schools would also have their team members sign similar agreements.
The football team would have three or four games left to play this season.
School board discussion
Board member Ben Huber said he was comfortable having the football season resume under the plan submitted by Winkler and his players. Players who do not sign the agreement would not be allowed to play.
Board member Laurie Vollrath expressed concerns about students not being allowed to participate in in-person learning, while the district would allow students to participate in sports.
Board member Jim Schultz said he supported the plan, but felt hypocritical because similar plans were not established for programs such as band, choir and art.
The board passed a motion to restart the football program under the guidelines presented to the board and to tweak the guidelines as it sees fit.
The board also asked district officials to research similar plans for other in-person programs the district offers.