Adjustments to the winter sports seasons necessary to give competitions a chance
by Oliviyah Thornton, Blue Ink
With recommendations given by South Dakota Activities Association (SDHSAA) to help keep athletes safe, wrestling season can commence despite recent numbers of COVID-19 going up.
Safety recommendations
- Tournaments
One major rule change is the number of athletes able to go. They will not allow more than 112 athlete boys to wrestle at any tournaments. This equals only eight athletes each in 14 weight classes per tournament.
With this plan in place, SDHSAA is limiting the number of athletes who can participate in a tournament.
No tournament is allowed more than 12 teams, but they can have more than 12 as long as the number of boys wrestling does not exceed 112.
For girls who are participating, tournaments cannot have more than 24 girls.
Another recommendation is that schools limit the number of staff people and/or managers they may bring. With this, they also encourage that schools do not send their cheerleaders to tournaments, but each tournament can make those decisions themselves.
“For example, we have a tournament coming up real early. Cheerleaders cannot attend. We will follow the wishes of that tournament,” said Mr. Kevin Steckler, Garretson High School teacher and athletics planner, when asked to give his example of what it would be like and why they wouldn’t allow cheerleaders to come.
When going to tournaments, wrestlers will also be encouraged to bring multiple uniforms so they will be able to change between each match. Garretson plans on making this a part of their plan.
Taking into consideration the Activities Association recommendations, Garretson will have a plan of their own. They will have all the necessities/supplies needed such as the towels, wipes, hand sanitizer, sanitizing spray, and cleaning supplies to help clean the mats that Garretson will provide for their athletes.
The Activities Association recommends to either limit the number of fans in attendance or not allow any at all.
Steckler gave his explanation of why this rule would be implemented, saying, “From that standpoint, wrestling is just a little different than our other winter sports. For example, a tournament can last all day and these athletes need to have a place to socially distance.”
Garretson has yet to make a decision regarding whether fans will be able to attend. At the moment, they plan to wait and see how other tournaments and quads tackle these issues and see what has worked and what hasn’t. Based on the information gathered, they will then decide what they think will be the best way to host these events in Garretson.
Garretson Wrestling currently has three matches scheduled on the home mats during its season.
- Practices
For practice, SDHSAA recommended putting athletes in groups of four or in pods that have 5, 6, 7 kids, etc., and having one coach work with each pod. That way, if a COVID case did occur, only the athletes in that pod and that one coach would be affected instead of the whole team.
Those decisions will be left to coaches for either putting the athletes in pods or allowing the coaches to work with all of the athletes.
“Our coaches understand if they work with all of our kids and somebody comes down with COVID, then that will take them out. They will be considered a close contact and they will all be affected. That is something we have discussed with our coaches and they will have to make that decision,” said Steckler.
With these concerns in mind, Mr. Bohl, Garretson High School math teacher and wrestling coach, explained his plans for his team.
“Our practices are going to be in smaller pods to eliminate the individual contact with other athletes” he said. “The coaching staff has a long checklist that we will abide by. We are going to do our best to keep our athletes and fans safe during the pandemic.”
Garretson still plans on implementing social distancing as much as possible and enforcing wearing masks when possible. They will be continuously communicating with their athletes to make the right decisions when they are not in the school building.
“Our athletes have to ask themselves what’s important. ‘Is my season important and if it is, I am going to have to make some concessions,’” said Steckler. “It might not seem fair but that is just the nature of where we are right now with COVID-19 so we continue to talk to our kids about this. Please make good choices. We hope that with these guidelines that we are going to be able to have a full season. I guess we will see.”
Mr. Steckler continued, giving his opinion on how this process may be difficult.
“It’s going to be interesting because of the nature of wrestling,” he said. “I mean wrestling is unlike any other sport because of the close body contact that will take place for 2-minute segments, 3 times each match when you wrestle somebody. And let’s say you are at a quad, you could wrestle three times. A tournament you could wrestle four times. The close nature of body contact, wrestling is just a whole different monster when you come compared to other sports.”
Sophomore Preston Bohl shared his thoughts about COVID and its impact on wrestling and if enough is being done to keep the athletes and fans safe.
“I think the state is doing all they can to try and stop the spread,” he said. “I know other states have already cancelled wrestling which is a bummer, but whatever it takes, I guess. Wrestling is one of the toughest sports to stop the spread because you are bringing in multiple teams instead of just one other team in basketball or volleyball. But the precautions they have told us about seem reasonable and will have to work.”
Junior Gabe Johnson shared his excitement for the upcoming season and whether the Activities Association is doing enough to keep the athletes and fans safe.
“I am very excited for the upcoming season and and I can’t say much about the precautions being taken because I have yet to practice,” commented Johnson. “I feel like they are taking many precautions to ensure we are safe but can also carry on with the sport.”
Girls wrestling program created
On Thursday, November 5th the Garretson school received an email involving a meeting for wrestling but in the end, it had a new addition that in past years it didn’t include. This year, Garretson is offering wrestling to girls.
Girls have wrestled in State tournaments in the past and Garretson has also had girls on their wrestling team before, but it was all a part of a boys’ program. Due to the growing popularity nationwide, SDHSAA voted to add girls wrestling statewide, making it the first time girls will wrestle girls at the state level.
“It was just a natural way of inviting this sport to our state. With the popularity nationwide of girls wrestling, South Dakota did the right thing and has added it as a sport for schools to add to their school and our coaches were overly excited,” said Steckler.
The plan is to treat this new addition just like the Cross Country Program or Gold Program, with girls and boys practicing together.
Another addition is that during the season, girls will have the option to just wrestle other girls, and they will wrestle boys if they choose to during the regular season. But in State tournaments, girls will only be allowed to wrestle against girls. If they get chosen to make it to the State tournament, that will go based on a seating process.
“It was a no brainer because of the popularity that girls wrestling has gained throughout the United States. We are very excited about it and we are excited about adding it to our athletic programs and we are excited to see how it will work this year and hopefully grow in the years to come,” said Mr. Steckler as he shared his excitement about the new addition. He thinks South Dakota made the right decision.
Impact on Wrestling Cheerleading
Along with the athletes’ season being impacted, the wrestling cheer team has had to also make a few adjustments. A few major changes include the cheerleaders not being permitted to attend big tournament matches.
Liz Etrheim, the cheerleading coach, shared her thoughts on the subject. “The girls have been working hard and are sad that we are unable to attend any big tournaments or even State if we make it as a team or individual.”
Another change is that they will be unable to have their K-5th cheer clinics. Ms. Etrheim knows elementary girls and some boys were looking forward to it this year and so were some of the parents, but she is hopeful that they may be able to do it next year.
Despite the uptick in cases, there have been many precautions and recommendations set in place to help keep athletes and fans safe and allow for wrestling to have a season. Garretson’s first match will be this Saturday, December 5 at the Flandreau Tournament in Flandreau at 10:00 am.
