Home Forums Long Island & Eastern New York Soccer Message Boards Roll Away The Stone Soccer News Cuomo issues guidelines for possible return of high school sports

By Roger Rubin
roger.rubin@newsday.com

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo issued guidance that could open the door to the return of high school sports across Long Island next month.

All his guidance will be contingent on Department of Health protocols and the approval of local officials, but practices could begin on Sept. 21 for what he called “lower-risk sports” such as tennis, soccer, cross country, field hockey and swimming.

Higher-risk sports -- football, wrestling, rugby and ice hockey -- can practice but are not yet authorized to play games.

There was no mention by the governor about volleyball, a popular fall sport.

“The state has done a lot of research on youth sports and the guidance we’ve come up with is this: what’s called lower-risk sports – tennis, soccer, cross country, field hockey, swimming – in all regions of the state can practice and play starting September 21,” Cuomo said. “So schools will be coming back, there’ll be a little bit of a period to gauge what’s happening, and September 21, they can start to practice and play all across the state. There is guidance posted by the Department of Health on just how they should do it.”

Cuomo’s guidance calls for practices, scrimmages and games to be played within the state’s geographic regions. Nassau and Suffolk counties are one region. That could change on Oct. 19, and, depending on NYSPHSAA officials, might open the door to the ambitious goal of state championship tournaments.

“There’ll be no travel, practice or play outside of the school’s region,” Cuomo said. “So the school can play in their region, they can play with a contiguous region or county, but nothing outside of that until October 19. Again, we’re doing this in phases, we want to see what the effect is, we want to see how it works, schools opening in general is a big question mark. What could the effect be?”

It would seem Cuomo wants to see how the return of sports in phases goes before green-lighting full contact sports, including football to compete.

“The fall is a big question mark. Many of the experts are suggesting there may be a second wave, or a recurrence, so phasing it will allow us to watch it,” Cuomo said. “The quote-un-quote higher risk sports, where there’s full physical contact … tackle football, wrestling, rugby, ice hockey, may continue to practice but they’re not authorized to play at this point.”

I’m sure a bunch of school districts hoped Cuomo had said no. That would make their job easier and not have to deal with the politics of upsetting families who wanted their kids to play in the fall.

Pessimist here. Most districts did not consider it was even a possibility to play this Fall, and have no protocols in place to address issues like team buses (1/2 full). Now watch them all cancel, as school sports is not the highest priority (and should not be) for this Fall.
The collateral damage will be their refusal to grant permits to club teams, that have an effective protocol to follow, but districts want to be ‘fair’ and deny everyone. LIJSL needs to push that 8/31 deadline and the season start back to October. They can go into December. No way indoor leagues are happening this year.

Yes, the school districts aren't going to have fall sports but they were hoping to pin that on Cuomo.

Is there any guidance for club teams? Was that already issued?

Clubs have been able to practice since beginning of July and play matches since end of July. Just can't travel to tournaments.

so, maybe, the Oct 19 date for out of state games applies to clubs as well.

Didn't the ECNL teams all play at pda last weekend

Absolutely

Maybe, but it was against NY State rules.

Which rules?
ENYYSA allowed local competitions beginning Aug17.
Travel with NY/NJ/CT is considered local for all quarantine purposes.

No, it most certainly is not. ENYYSA has sent several e-mails re-iterating that out of state play was prohibited.

So let me get this straight...
Colleges can't find a way to have conference only games.
Parents can choose remote only schooling options.
Are you then sending them to school for practice, on a crowded bus?
And then the bus to games?
But it's ok to then send your kid out to play HS soccer?

The ambiguity here is astonishing.

You Facebook moms need to chill with the "they need to play". The more serious ones should be playing club ball already.

What am I missing here?

You are missing a coherent thought, I am not sure if you are for or against.

I live in Queens where there is no indoor dining, I can drive 5 minutes down the road to Nassau County and dine indoors.

Kids can play a match in Southampton 76 miles away. But if they crossover to Ct or NJ maybe 16 miles away it's not allowed? I call bs. The tri state area has the same quarantine list of states, why can't kids play a game in NJ from NY or CT?
,

Not ENYYSA (which has nothing to do with ECNL). NYS (King Andrew) allows local play, but prohibits travel outside your NYS region for a tournament. No NJ. No CT. Can't even go to a tournament off LI. Agree or not, those are the rules.

I'm really not giving a stance one way or another. Looking at it from a LI perspective, but I appreciate your NYC perspective. The whole thing is ambiguous, and gives everyone thismuchhope until the powers that be change the rules. I just don't see how anyone can remote learn then send the child to play sports. Just move Fall sports to Spring, problem hopefully solved.

Here are the ENYSSA guidelines as of today- sucks

NYS was very specific about no travel outside your region for youth sports. They even clarified this by saying that Nassau and Suffolk are considered one region. WC, SUSA and EM should not have traveled to NJ for the tournament. I agree that the rules suck, but these are still the rules.

So continue to have karen or steven sit on the couch and play video games or make Tik toks. Others are out playing

Karen, you are relentless with this nonsense. It’s okay to travel to NJ, CT and other states with low numbers.
King Cuomo is clueless when it comes down to this. He allowed lacrosse to start a while ago because he said it’s not a contact sport 🤷🏼‍♂️

When an anonymous person calls a specific person clueless I immediately have no interest what they have to say. As far as your comment about our Governor I will listen to what he has to say over Trump any day. At least he gets his information from knowledgeable scientists and doctors who are the leaders in this field. I agree that we need to have more uniformity and consistency when it comes to playing sports going forward. Is that the NY Governors fault when every Governor in all 50 states have been left to figure it out on their own. There is no fundamental plan for all to use as a guideline. That’s the problem. For someone anonymous to call someone clueless then say “go ahead and travel to other states with low numbers” is just reckless.

Really need to stop with the word Karen. If you use it, you are trying waaay to hard. Probably drink white claws and attempt tik-tok's with your kids while letting them walk all over you - instead of just being a responsible adult. Stop already with the Karen use.

You are not the sharpest tool in the shed. The issue is the teams come from other states that are having an issue with Covid and your team has no control over those other teams that are participating in the tournament

Wait - I like White Claw. Is that bad? lol.