DELAWARE- With COVID-19 still a threat, athletes have been able to come back to play with face coverings.
Governor Carney's latest revision to the state of emergency says wearing a mask is not required for moderate to low risk sports and adult amateur sports while playing. The topic sparked the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association (DIAA) lead by Sussex Tech Principal Dr. Bradley Layfield to consider the possibility of removing face coverings from play.
"Having looked at these statistics for several years, unfortunately there are more student-athletes in a year's time that die from cardiac arrest on the field than have probably been seriously ill or passed away from COVID-19," Layfield said.
Ultimately, it was a strikeout as 37 member schools reported only one injury because of a mask being worn. Six out of nine Henlopen Conference schools have told the DIAA they want mandatory masks. Some members of the board like Superintendent of Red Clay Schools Dorell Green feel with only five weeks left in the season, the rules might as well stay the same as they have been all year long.
"We are going to have implications (for example) where Salesianum made the decision they are going to require masks for their student-athletes and then what does that mean for the visiting schools," Green said. "Just seems like a lot of disruption to the system."
High school and middle school athletes will have to keep a face covering on the field.