The Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activity Association meets Monday morning to look at logistics, concerns, and the safety of sports during the pandemic.
Sterling Warren is a senior at Booker T. Washington High School, as a wide receiver for the BTW football team, he's ready to make all his hard work count one last time.
“You have one focus, and that’s to win, and least that’s what it is for me, so I do extra work out’s outside of practice and stuff like that", Warren said.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, that chance might not happen.
Tulsa Public Schools Athletic Director Gil Cloud is one of many school officials across Green Country trying to remain hopeful about sports this year and player safety.
I can assure you this, I’ll sleep all night every night because I’m not going to put a kid in the position where they can get infected.
The OSSAA approved practice, and at TPS, there are new protocols in place for the student-athletes.
Cloud tells us, “Daily temperature checks and 10 questions that were developed by the National Federation of High school Athletics Association and the CDC, and we do that every day a kid comes on campus and into an athletic facility."
Even with precautions, the future of conference competition for sports like football is still unclear.
“We have one plan where we’ll start as usual, the second plan was a 2-4 week suspension of play, so we wouldn't start until the end of September, and the last one is we wouldn't start until January," Cloud said.
Players like Sterling are holding on to hope that they will get to take the field.
So while Cloud keeps eager athletes, like Warren, on his mind, he said right now, it's a game of wait and see.
“Working out extras and stuff like that, I would just hate for that to be like...for nothing,” Warren said.
Cloud says everything is day-to-day, he said the word for 2020 is 'flexibility' because things are going to change.
“It does mean a lot, the last year of high school football and going to school for all these years and playing football, and senior year period," Warren said.
2 Works for You took this topic to Facebook and received a mixed response.
Facebook viewer, Alicia said, "My boys have been playing baseball all summer, I think when it's an outside sport, it's much easier to spread out. No one has been sick."
Another Facebook viewer, Sharon, commented, "Do not open schools right now, online teaching and learning only."
The football season for Tulsa Public Schools was originally set to start August 10. Cloud hopes today's virtual meeting will bring more clarity.
For guidelines on youth sports recommended by the CDC, click here.
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