Phase 2 allows youth sports to take the field with a catch

Youth sports leaders are taking this week to process and implement state-mandated safety protocols as their programs received permission to resume play under Phase 2 of Gov. Charlie Baker’s reopening plan.

During this phase, which started Monday, youth sports programs are allowed to operate under certain conditions that emphasize social distancing and hygiene, including but not limited to:

• No scrimmages, games or tournaments allowed for sports that cannot remain socially distanced
• No contact drills, high fives or fist bumps
• Practice groups must be kept small
• Face coverings must be worn before and after practice by participants
• Minimize shared equipment
• Disinfect all equipment
• No shared food or drink
• No locker room use or loitering before or after practices

Tim Driscoll of Driscoll Skating and Skills told Boston 25 News that his pop-up ice skating clinic, which he’ll run starting Tuesday night at Boston Sports Institute in Wellesley, sold out in about four hours this past weekend.

“Kids have not had an opportunity to do a lot of things [during the COVID-19 pandemic,]” Driscoll said. “I’ve heard from a lot of parents who have said, you know, ‘Hey, I gotta get my son or daughter out of the house, like they got to do something.’ It’s a really tough environment for them.”

Driscoll said his skills sessions, which emphasize skating and not scrimmages under normal circumstances, have limited capacity during Phase 2. He said he has already organized an arrival protocol with his fellow coaches that enforces social distancing, and that clear communication with parents and players will be important.

Since the spring youth sports seasons were canceled for outdoor sports including softball, baseball, lacrosse and soccer, many of those local programs are looking forward to summer sessions to engage children.

“What Phase 2 allows us to do is to get kids outside in very small groups, in a very controlled environment,” said Chris Fay, president of Wayland Little League.

“I’m sure the kids are raring to go, but based on a family situation and what their comfort level is, it makes it far more challenging right now [for some to sign up] because of the uncertainty.”

Fay said his and other little leagues throughout the region are working to adapt and implement the commonwealth’s safety requirements and each program will make decisions based on its comfort level as well.

For example, because of social distancing requirements, Wayland Little League decided not to operate Phase 2 programming for children under the age of 9. The league posted its safety protocols to its website Monday night with the goal of receiving town board of health’s approval to move forward, he said.

“The biggest challenge is the ball,” Fay said empathetically of the state’s shared equipment conditions. “Keeping distance is certainly easy to do. The sharing of the baseball is something that we do: We have a catch and the ball goes back and forth between players.”

Another challenge is finding a place to play. Fay said many towns had already decided to close public fields through June.

Meanwhile, school systems, which are operating under remote learning conditions for the remainder of the school year, control many other fields usually used by local youth sports programs and, in many cases, would need to approve usage separately from the town.

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