I see it making as much sense as shutting down youth leagues and rec sports while allowing high school and college to continue uninterrupted.
Not putting a dog in the covid fight whatsoever, but this point cannot be emphasized enough.
I have coached youth and high school sports extensively, and I can say without question that the two middle school seasons are by far and away the most important developmentally for athletes. It's not even a question. Put a kid on a HS football field who didn't get to play in middle school where he would learn to tackle (and be tackled) and it’s going to be lots of trouble. Put a kid with no junior high baseball experience up to bat against even a JV pitcher and it’s going to be a ride on the struggle bus from that point forward for almost all of them. You can’t learn those experiences by practicing. You have to do them to get capable at it.
My kid and every other middle schooler in Iowa have now had two seasons shut down before they really even got started (baseball this past summer and basketball a week ago), and these kids are going to be in trouble going into high school.
I don't give two damns about who the governor is, but this makes zero sense. Cancel middle school sports because of crowds and social distancing, but not JV and Varsity sports? When high school sports unquestionably involve more people in the gym?
If we're being honest, the restrictions are being put in place to help stop the spread of C19. That's the intent whether someone agrees with it or not (I don't care either way what someone's opinion is). So if that's the intent, why do we allow sports that involve much more travel and many more people inside the facilities? It's more effective fighting C19 when a gym can be full of HS players and 2 parents each than it is for me to have 7 kids in the gym for a batting practice when we wear masks and stay 6 feet apart (actually more like 20 feet)?
Why are HS sports more important? Is it because seniors don't have a "next year?"
Is it because they are just plain more important?
If the answer to those questions is "yes," then to me schools aren't doing this to stop C19, they're saying HS sports are worth the risk even though they're more apt to cause spread. That's backwards, folks. It doesn’t compute.