Upset parents appeal decision to cancel Harris County youth football amid COVID-19
Upset parents and coaches urged the Harris County Parks and Recreation Department board Wednesday night to overturn the director’s cancellation of the football and cheerleading seasons due to the coronavirus surge.
After more than an hour of heated debate, Harris County Youth Football president and rec board member Steve Felt made the motion to reverse the cancellation of the football and cheerleading seasons. Harris County Soccer Association president and rec board member Thomas Vowell seconded the motion.
Board chairman Mike Fuson, president of the Waverly Hall Youth Sports Association, said board precedent precludes members from immediately voting on the motion. He told the seven other voting members they must wait at least two weeks, so he called for a special meeting, Aug. 12 at 7 p.m.
“I’m very sorry, y’all,” Vowell told the audience of about 20 socially-distanced parents and coaches in the community center’s gym.
The indecision left them wondering whether they could conduct conditioning sessions for the players. No answer was given Wednesday night, but rec department director Stephen Waskey told the Ledger-Enquirer in a text message Thursday morning, “Not at this time.”
Mountain Hill athletics director Bill Bailey, who coaches in the league and has a 7-year-old son wanting to play, filed the appeal to the board. After the meeting, he said, “I believe they knew the vote was going to be yes, so they tabled it.”
Making the indecision even more frustrating, Bailey said, fall baseball tryouts start this weekend, leaving families in a dilemma about holding out for a football season that might not happen or switching to baseball or soccer.
“Delaying it two weeks, they’re trying to cancel out football and the vote,” he said.
Why rec department director decided to cancel seasons
Among the six parents or coaches who spoke to the board during the meeting, none supported the cancellation, but one suggested playing flag football or moving the season to the spring instead, and another expressed concern about the ability to social distance.
Bailey noted a survey of more than 100 parents of football players and cheerleaders — approximately one-fourth of those registered last year — showed 91% want their children to participate this season.
“You should be able to trust these parents,” board member Joe Valdes of Cataula said during the meeting.
Vowell asserted that not heeding the overwhelming majority of parents “makes zero sense. It makes this board look horrible and this recreation department look unorganized.”
Waskey announced his decision July 20 during a meeting with the county’s five football association presidents.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be well-liked,” he told the L-E in a phone interview.
Waskey delayed the start of fall baseball and softball a month to Sept. 12 and is considering keeping the regular start to soccer in mid-September.
The typical youth football team in Harris County has 20 players and five coaches, Waskey said. That’s 50 people for a game already, not counting officials and cheerleaders, and Gov. Brian Kemp’s executive order issued July 15 prohibits gathering of more than 50 people in situations such as youth sports:
“Groups of more than 50 people are permitted if their grouping is transitory or incidental, or if their grouping is the result of being spread across more than one single location,” the order declares.
Football and cheerleading, which combines to average more than 400 children ages 5-13, involve close contact among the participants. Social-distancing accommodations are more practical in the other fall sports, Waskey said.
“Baseball players don’t have that much contact,” he said, “and in soccer, you can space out on the field and have a new 3-foot halo rule.”
Vowell countered during the meeting, “Soccer is a very, very physical sport. … They drool over each other, they kick the ball on each other, they push each other, they touch each other, they slap each other.”
Another concern is that the football association’s insurance is through USA Football, which advises a phased return to play, Waskey said.
“We were starting out in Phase 1, and we were going to have to get all the way to Phase 4 before we could start playing,” he said. “With the way the virus is going and the executive order and everything, I did not see us getting to Phase 4.”
Waskey noted that the county’s youth football leaders rejected his two alternative options: play flag football instead or postpone the season until the spring.
“I love football,” he said. “I played one year in college (at Tusculum). I love watching it. I love seeing the kids play it. It was a very difficult choice. It weighed a lot on me. It kept me up at night. But, ultimately, I had to think about the kids’ safety and the safety of this community.”
Canceling the football and cheerleading seasons instead of indefinitely postponing them allows those children time to consider playing a different sport this fall, Waskey said.
During the meeting, Vowell said, “I think we’re doing a severe injustice to have these folks who are really trying to do something and us telling them they’ve got to wait. … I’m just kind of flabbergasted right now. … The decision was made by one person.”
Vowell continued, “I find this to be just asinine that we’ve got to sit here and say, ‘We’re going to hold you off for two more weeks.’ I mean, there’s got to be something we can do.”
Fuson replied, “I see where you’re coming from, but this is what we’ve always done. … I think the reason they have those (delayed votes) in place is so we’re not making a knee-jerk reaction. We’re giving it time for each board member to sit there and talk to their communities and talk to the parents and find out what the best course of action should be.”
How is Columbus handling youth sports?
The status of youth sports in Columbus is a bit different.
The youth football and cheerleader seasons aren’t canceled but are postponed until mid-August, when the situation will be reevaluated, Columbus Parks and Recreation director Holli Browder said via email.
“Other sports have been able to provide operational plans that allow them to follow CDC recommended guidelines for return to play and social distancing,” she said.
The current CDC guidelines for conducting youth sports during the pandemic, last updated May 28, say that protocols should depend on “what is practical, acceptable and tailored to the needs of each community.”
The CDC uses this continuum to describe the risk of spreading COVID-19 in youth sports:
- Lowest Risk: Performing skill-building drills or conditioning at home, alone or with family members.
- Increasing Risk: Team-based practice.
- More Risk: Within-team competition.
- Even More Risk: Full competition between teams from the same local geographic area.
- Highest Risk: Full competition between teams from different geographic areas.
If 6 feet of social distancing isn’t possible “at all times,” the CDC says, youth sports “may consider dropping down a level and limiting participation to within-team competition only.”
The CDC also advises, “The way sports are played and the way equipment is shared can influence the spread of COVID-19 among players.”
Columbus Youth Football is waiting for city officials to approve its plan, CYF president Ku’Wonna Ingram said in a phone interview, which calls for the start of conditioning to be delayed by one week, until Aug. 17, and for practice in pads to start Aug. 24. The season’s first games would be on Sept. 19.
“That’s contingent upon the CDC recommendations and if there are any new executive orders from the governor,” she said. “There’s so many moving parts.”
Ingram is hearing arguments on both sides of the issue.
“There’s a lot of parents who are afraid and concerned, but you have a lot of parents that are ready to get back,” she said. “But they’ve got to know it won’t be football as usual.”
The CYF’s proposed coronavirus protocols include:
- Cleaning and sanitizing equipment.
- No sharing water bottles.
- No handshaking or slapping.
- Temperature checks.
- Masks mandatory for coaches, officials and cheerleaders.
- Masks and face shields for football players optional.
- Bleachers closed. Spectators must sit in chairs they bring and must wear a mask if they can’t socially distance.
- Concession stand food must be prepackaged.
CYF usually has about 1,300 football players and cheerleaders, ages 3½-13, per season. Although registration has been slower than normal, Ingram said, some Harris County parents already have called to consider joining. More might join if middle schools cancel their season, she said.
“If we have the right parameters in place and we have safety as a priority,” she said, “I think we will be able to have a successful season.”
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
