Smart ass
Anyway, it's complicated.
With your idea about low risk counties, how do you propose opening up Orange City to HS sports compared to Mid Prairie?
Sports isn't a great concern for me personally. I love sports and my son and his friends love playing. It's a great builder of confidence, great social tool (if done well). But...there are alternatives that can be effectively done by most parents in sports' place. Just as a personal example, 7th grade baseball in Iowa was canceled and I didn't have enough players whose parents wanted to hold a travel team. So in place of that I've usually once a week offered for players/friends to meet at my house and do something as a group. Most weekends my son and I fish and I give everyone an open invitation to come along (parents and kids). We've done some other stuff like some woodworking projects, and what have you, but the fishing thing has been a huge hit. Most of his friends haven't fished before this summer, but there are a bunch now that come all the time and some have even taken it up with their parents/siblings. It's not just me, other moms/dads have done similar things with the group as well.
Where I'm going with all that is that sports can be somewhat effectively replaced with other activities that build some of the same traits and skills.
In my opinion teaching a school curriculum cannot, because almost all parents are not qualified and able to spend the time. There's a reason teaching requires such high educational standards and people skills and patience are a must (ideally). We disagree on this and there's no need to debate it, but I do not believe that virtual learning is a good thing for most students. Some will do fine, but most not. I have friends who are wonderful parents (in a stable two-parent household, not the heathenish, riotous, chaos that is my home), but when they tried to manage having their kindergartner and 1st grader to learn that curriculum in front of a tablet/computer this spring, they were literally pushed to the point of tears. These are great, educated people and one even stayed home to try and help and it just doesn't work. There is much more to school than listening to a teacher, and it cannot be replaced by video screens. High schoolers can potentially make it work if they're attentive and driven (how many of those do you know), but younger kids and those with learning disabilities are in big, big trouble if districts go virtual.
Contrary to what you think, I'm not saying all this just to be a complaining douche bag, and I'm also not saying I'm not open to compromise. In fact I'm in total favor of getting creative with how in-person schooling is carried out. We've put people on the moon, we can figure this out. There's no redos, and no "just wait a year" when it comes to education. It has to happen when it's supposed to or kids are going to be hurt developmentally and socially.
To answer your question re: sports if they do happen, I'm in favor of tailored response to problems. In my quad county area there is a super low prevalence of hospitalized COVID cases (0 as a matter of fact as of yesterday). We have a very, very low population density, no large gathering places like big night clubs, and there are a lot of outdoor recreation opportunities vs some cities. Baseball has been managed very well here and I think this was a great litmus test. Gehlen had an underclassman test positive and it was handled as well as it could have been. Contact tracing/testing was done, and the team hit pause for two weeks. They played Trinity in Hull last night and things are back to "normal." I think outdoor sports can proceed like that according to how severe each individual community is. Would it be ok to hold games in the middle of a town with lots of problems/hospitalizations? Nope. But I do not believe one response is appropriate for every situation, either.
Football will probably be ok because with high school you don't typically have 70,000 people in the stands nor 100,000 tailgaters. Catching COVID outdoors is thought according to the most current research to be very difficult in small groups. Seating can be adjusted.
Basketball? I don't see people being allowed in packed, small HS gyms until a vaccine is available. Oxford/Moderna are thinking October/November-ish, and they're more confident the longer we go. That time frame probably needs to add a couple more months before we can count on non-vulnerable people like many of us here getting the shot. So basketball I don't think will happen this winter (with fans)