By Joshua Choe, Opinions Editor
It’s been almost a month since the start of school and Mills High School’s fall sports are in full swing, with Mills football, girl’s volleyball, water polo, and cross country all having multiple games under their belt.. Considering COVID-19 is still prevalent in our everyday lives, as well as the Delta variant posing a significant threat, it’s necessary to take precautions, thus increasing the need for proper safety precautions to keep both athletes and spectators safe
At school, inside of our classrooms, we are required to wear our masks at all times, our desks and chairs are wiped down as often as possible, amongst many other non-visible protocols that are planned out. If we want to do something even as inconsequential as taking a sip of water, we are required to do so outside the classroom. Additionally, should someone contract the virus, there are protocols in place including testing and separation of those who were in contact with the person who contracted COVID. Sports, of course, are a close contact activity and are strenuous activities that put students at risk for COVID-19 more than our normal everyday actions, due to obvious reasons such as heavier breathing around unmasked athletes. To keep athletes safe, new precautions have been taken and put forth. Mr. Keller, the athletics director for Mills explains the specific precautions that athletes at Mills must take: “Athletes that practice indoors are required to wear masks and coaches must change plans from ordinary practice planning, due to athletes not being able to go through heavy exertion with a mask on. Vaccines are not required for athletes and spectators are not required to wear masks unless they are indoors.”
However, since that interview, new information regarding the COVID vaccine mandate has been revealed. Through an email sent to all sports participants, the administration expanded upon the change and necessity for vaccines, likely because of multiple discoveries of COVID-19 within the Mills population and possible unidentified cases at rival schools. All athletes are soon to be cleared for vaccination if they want to participate in sports.
From the first-hand experiences from our Mills Football team and Water polo in the pool, players describe their experience with the protocols and how it affects their practice and even games: Nagham Masarweh (10) is on the Mills Water polo team and she gives a quote on how she feels as if the regulations are almost nonexistent: “Nothing is different from ordinary practice, there aren’t any regulations for water polo.” On the other hand, the Mills Football team is required to have more regulations. A sophomore football player who wishes to stay anonymous is on the JV football team and he shares how practice and games are affected by regulations for him, “We don’t really do anything differently, other than having our masks on whenever we need to. Personally, I’m just more careful when I ride the bus or touch doorknobs.”
We hope that the regulations put in place will sufficiently protect our student athletes and we hope that they will have a good year of sports.
