Two parents can be allowed for Kansas high school winter sports starting Thursday
Up to two parents or guardians per participant family can be allowed to attend Kansas high school winter sports events starting on Thursday, following a vote by the Kansas State High School Activities Association Board of Directors on Tuesday.
The vote does not mean every school has to allow spectators into their events, but it does leave it up to each school district. That’s a reversal from what the KSHSAA Board of Directors decided in a Nov. 24 meeting when it voted to not allow any fans during the coronavirus pandemic through at least Jan. 28.
“We had great success in the fall, but we weren’t perfect and certainly as a society we aren’t perfect,” said Bill Faflick, the KSHSAA executive director. “There’s significant evidence of continued community spread. Our numbers are worse now than they have been in a long time. It’s really important we never lose sight of that data.
“We do have great confidence in our schools. With this comes accountability and responsibility to know what the data is showing in your community.”
The final vote passed by a 52-24 margin, but it’s important to point out that all three of the Wichita Public School representatives — East principal Sara Richardson, Northwest principal Eric Hofer-Holdeman and South principal Cara Ledy— all voted no on the motion.
GWAL athletic director J. Means told The Wichita Eagle that the City League would conduct a league meeting with principals and athletic directors on Wednesday morning to discuss how it wants to move forward. Means said that he hopes the City League can be unified in a decision with the area teams in the Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail League.
“This at least opens up the option to look at having spectators,” Means said. “Of course that will be our big discussion (Wednesday) is about how many and where. Our facilities can probably handle it for basketball and for wrestling, but I’m not so sure our facilities will allow us to handle it for swimming and we haven’t even begun to discus bowling yet. That’s what we have to figure out now.”
The special meeting on Tuesday was for an open discussion on if parents would be allowed at basketball, bowling, swimming and diving, and wrestling events during the winter months. There was also a lengthy discussion on determining the start date, the number of spectators allowed and the specific wording on what spectators would be allowed.
In the end, the Board of Directors approved the motion proposed by Paola principal Jeff Hines, which now allows up to two parents or guardians of participants, instead of just athletes, to attend the events. Faflick clarified that a participant will include members of the cheer squad, dance team, pep band, team managers, videographers and student journalists. Coaches will also be allowed a spouse or significant other in the crowd.
Faflick clarified that only parents or guardians will be allowed at the games, not general family members or children. If a family has multiple participants in an event — like a girls basketball player, a boys basketball player and someone in the band — they will not receive two entries per participant, rather two entries per family.
Masks will be required for those in attendance and overall attendance can still be restricted by local the board of education or health department.
When asked afterward by the media if he was concerned Tuesday’s decision could play a role in spreading the COVID-19 virus in communities, Faflick said that was a real concern.
“That’s absolutely a concern and that’s why the protocols have been put in place and that’s why crowd sizes will continued to be limited,” Faflick said. “The schools felt by the actions (Tuesday) through their representatives that with smaller crowds it will be easier to manage. They have the autonomy to say, ‘We’re not going to have crowds at all.’ And we still have some communities that still are not participating at all in our winter activities.
“Our administrators are known to be make very difficult decisions that are often unpopular. I’m very confident in them that they will continue to have those tough conversations and make those difficult decisions.”
This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 3:15 PM.
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