By BRIAN SCHMID
After a year of dealing with the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, youth sports are back with heavy protocols and restrictions.
New Jersey high school students are now allowed to practice both indoors and outdoors once again after an easing of previous restrictions by Governor Phil Murphy. Murphy eased these restrictions back in July, when the number of cases throughout the state were at an all-time low.
“As an umpire, it was up to us to sort of lead the players and coaches in terms of what would happen next,” said John Hutchinson, a high school umpire of over ten years. There are a plethora of protocols that are put in place all over the country, and these sports are no different. “We are just lucky to have sports available to kids again.”
Shutting Down Youth Sports
The beginning months of the coronavirus pandemic were hard and came with many restrictions from Governor Murphy. One of these restrictions was the postponement of all spring sports for the 2020 season.
We’re leaning on the guidance from the NJSIAA against the resumption of spring sports for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. The NJSIAA Medical Board concluded that due to a lack of testing, viable treatments, and a vaccine, that spring sports were not a viable option.
— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) May 4, 2020
“Ultimately, it was the right decision to make,” continued Hutchinson. “It’s just a very unfortunate situation. I especially feel bad for the seniors who had their final season completely wiped away.” However, as the year went on coronavirus cases slowly went down in the state of New Jersey, according to officials.
According to state.nj.us, as of 2019 there are 584 operating school districts in New Jersey, and every one of them had their spring sports cancelled due to the pandemic.
Restarting Sports Programs
Once the pandemic was under decent control in the state, it was time to open up youth sports programs with legally mandated protocols. This announcement came on July 20 in this tweet by Governor Murphy:
NEW: I’m signing an Executive Order to allow contact drills and practices, and competitions, to resume today for high-risk sports.
Practices must be held at outdoor venues ONLY. All sports will have to abide by a number of health and safety protocols. pic.twitter.com/GZCg54IcvL
— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) July 20, 2020
Although immediately only outdoor sports were started back up, all sports followed suit in the following months as the weather got colder, according to officials.
The immediate months following the re-introduction to youth sports did not feel like a return to normalcy, though. There were heavy rules enforced by all leagues, including baseball, football and basketball, that encouraged social distancing and cleanliness in order to protect youth athletes, coaches, and officials.
[AUDIO: Listen to John Hutchinson explain the new protocols.]
Ian Schmid, a sophomore at Vernon Township High School, and running back of the varsity football team had 
experiences with the reopening of youth sports, as well as the new protocols put into place. “For summer practices we had to meet a lot on Zoom going over game plans,” Schmid said. “As we got closer to the season we were able to start having practices outside, but were not allowed to have any physical contact.”
Despite cases being low during the summer, there was still no sense of normalcy in the world of youth and high school sports. “We also were not allowed in the weight room for the first half of the season,” Schmid continued. There were still many guidelines and restrictions that were to be followed.
Although there are many negatives associated with the pandemic, especially in the world of youth sports, there were not necessarily zero positive outcomes. “It wasn’t all bad,” Schmid said. “Yeah sure, on the outside looking in it may look bad, but for us players there were some key takeaways. It taught us how to fight through some sort of adversity. I’m not sure I would have gotten that experience in a normal season.” He believes that this season will definitely be unforgettable.
“Overall, I am very proud of all the players and coaches who put up with a situation that none of us were accustomed to,” Hutchinson said with a grin spanning from cheek to cheek. “I know for sure it was tough on me as someone who had to monitor each person, I could not imagine how it was for people who had to actually perform in these conditions.”
The pandemic is far from over and youth sports are still going to be undergoing protocols for some time, officials say.
I thought that this was a very well put together story. I really like the audio clip that you put in of your source explaining the new protocol and thought it was very informative. My only critique as far as that goes is it would have been better if you had Mr. Hutchinson introduce himself at the start of the recording before he got into his tirade. Great use of subheadings and multimedia elements too.
I think the audio painted a clear picture of some of the regulations that change the format of youth sports. I think you could do a follow-up in a few months to see if anything changes with restrictions.