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High school sports dealing with COVID-19 restrictions

High school sports are trying to adjust to life with restrictions related to COVID-19. That includes changes to every day procedures as well as changes to the schedule.

When it comes to dealing with the day-to-day restrictions related to COVID-19, Wimberley ISD Athletic Director Doug Warren said his staff and athletes are following all the protocols put in place.

“We have protocol we have to follow set forth by our administration,” Warren said. “We have been following our guidelines and wearing our masks and limiting the amount of time you are with certain groups. We have integrated those into our workout so that way you aren’t standing next to somebody for long periods of time. Having masks available to the kids and making them wear those things when they aren’t actively exercising.”

Should an athlete test positive for COVID-19, the protocols are in place to try and make sure everyone else was kept safe.

“If they are doing all of that, and we are following everything we are supposed to follow then basically only that kid that is sick will be the one that has to be quarantined and has to go home,” Warren said. “Through their investigations and research (for contact tracing) if they find that kid had close contact with some other student, they will let them know they will need to quarantine also, but if we are doing what we are supposed to do and somebody gets sick, basically it is only that kid who has to quarantine.”

High school sports schedules are also changing.

Texan football has currently lost one game due to the changes, the fifth game of the season versus Alamo Heights, but Warren said that there is still a chance that game gets put back on the schedule.

Beyond that, it is mainly the order of the games that have been adjusted for the football team.

“All of our district games have been moved up a week,” Warren said. “We also split the district into two zones, and we did this to try and make sure we get our four district representatives (for the playoffs).”

When it comes to district play, the first three weeks will be games against the teams in your zone and one “crossover” game to a district opponent in the other zone. The district records will then be used to seed the game for the fourth week of the district season. The top two teams of each zone will play for a district championship, the second place teams will play and so on. The Texans would then have a bye week before playing a final “crossover” game to round out the district season.

Warren said that the district games were being shuffled to account for the new scheduling process. The first planned scrimmage of the year has been canceled. A scrimmage will be held in LaVernia on August 20. The first game is versus Canyon Lake on August 28.

There are also restrictions on how many people will be allowed in each game. Capacities are set at 50 percent, and Warren said the school would be releasing a plan on the procedure for game days.

Volleyball will see one significant change to the season. The UIL has determined that tournaments will not be allowed this year.

“We have our big tournament every year here but this keeps us from having 32 teams coming into our gym from all over and having a ton of fans in and out all the time,” Warren said.

Volleyball started practice this week and games will start next week.

Team tennis and cross country started practice this week and had the beginning of the season pushed back also.

Wimberley View

P.O. Box 49
Wimberley, TX 78676
Phone: 512-847-2202
Fax: 512-847-9054