Scoring Points: COVID causes more high school sports setbacks

If you have been keeping up with the regular “Scoring Points” Sunday Edition articles, you have probably seen where I have talked about how Iowa has resumed their summer baseball and softball seasons recently. As I am sure most had thought, they have seen some recent sports setbacks in their return. More than a handful of teams have already had to self quarantine after players had tested positive for COVID-19 during the first few weeks of the season.

Being that Iowa was the first state in the country to allow high school sports to resume and start playing games again, there is a lot riding on their seasons and how things work out. They are a metaphorical “lab rat” if you will, for the rest of the country to see if it is possible for even low contact sports such as baseball and softball to return.

Iowa has taken their sports setbacks in stride in my opinion, implementing a quarantine period for all players and coaches who were participants in the game where it was later discovered a student tested positive. Opponents on both the teams schedules were notified and can either choose to play the remaining games against the team or withdraw from those games. Giving the other schools this option allows them to make their own decision and keeps it from becoming a state-wide decision. After the quarantine period, the players and coaches from both infected teams will be monitored for symptoms and assuming all things come back in the clear, they will be able to resume play.

I cannot say that i’m surprised to see that Iowa has seen some positive cases from players in the league as that is something that they cannot control. However, I am surprised at the way that they are handling things over there. They are putting the safety of the kids first in monitoring all of them closely, yet they have yet to shut everything down just because of a few asymptomatic positive tests. I think that this is actually a good thing for a surrounding area official to study and see that though it may not be easy to return, it sure is possible.

Check out more of Jake West’s Scoring Points by reading last week’s article: Will Youth Sports Make it Through Corona Shutdown?. Also remember, in sports, points are scored by both sides, so send in your opinions on sports to info@fetchyournews.com and see them in our next Sunday Edition.