CIAC issues guidance for fall sports; requires masks inside buildings

As they did in 2020, volleyball players will need to wear masks in practice and in games indoors.

The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference issued their guidance for playing high school sports in Connecticut on Thursday.

All sports, including football which was not allowed to be played a year ago, will be allowed this fall although there will be some concessions to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students, officials and coaches will have to wear masks – regardless of vaccination status — when they are indoors. Like they did a year ago, girls volleyball players will have to wear a mask during practice and during games. Volleyball players don’t need to be masked if practice or games are held outside.

Football players will have to wear masks for any activities inside a building – weightlighting, team meetings, film sessions, halftime talks.

No masks are required for outdoor activities such as football, soccer, field hockey, cross and country and boys golf, which makes its debut this fall.  Fifty-two schools, including Avon, Farmington, Simsbury and Lewis Mills, have chosen to field boys golf teams in the fall while the remaining boys golf teams will play in the spring.

The CIAC also plans a full season of competition and will host state tournaments in each respective sport. A year ago, the season didn’t begin until October 1 and schools played limited regional schedules. The state tournaments were cancelled.

The CIAC strongly advised eligible middle school and high school athletes to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Students ages 12 and up are eligible to receive a vaccine.

“Vaccination of all eligible athletes, coaches, and officials is currently the most important mitigation strategy we have available for preventing COVID-19 outbreaks on youth sports teams, and in the surrounding communities that support them,” the CIAC said in a statement on Thursday.

The CIAC also encouraged school athletic directors and club sports organizers to work with DPH and/or their local health departments to host and sponsor mobile or other vaccine clinics to get middle and high school students and their eligible family members vaccinated.

One major perk for getting vaccinated is that individuals who are vaccinated do not need to quarantine if exposed to a COVID-19 case if they remain asymptomatic. But individuals would have to wear a mask until they received a negative COVID-19 test three to five days after the contact.

Unvaccinated individuals in close contact with a COVID-19 case must quarantine for 10 days and can return to the sport 14 days later or 10 days later with a negative COVID test.

The CIAC encourages weekly testing of unvaccinated individuals and coaches.

The CIAC is leaving rules about spectators up to schools and guidance from their local Department of Health.

The guidance was developed with the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) and was reviewed by the Connecticut State Medical Society’s sports medicine committee and the CIAC emphasized that the plan is fluid and in a perpetual state of evaluation.