University High School announced its resolve to move football, volleyball and cross-country to an intramural season for the fall due to considerations of the COVID-19 pandemic, while competing in girls’ golf and child tennis as planned.
The university’s athletic director, John Walls, shared the resolution with the fall sports athletes at the University, a personal school in Carmel with a staff of 327 students. Walls’ was published Friday on the University’s sports website:
“As we end july, we are preparing for the official start to the fall sports season in the state of Indiana. The protocols that High School University put into practice this month with the return of athletes went well, and we felt confident at the point of protection we provide to our athletes. As we move on to the next phase of the season, which involves competing with other Indiana schools, we face increasing unrest so that we can position our athletes in conditions and environments with a strong COVID-19 spread option.
“The sports department, management and the fall training team at the university high school made the difficult decision to cancel UHS participation in IHSAA inter school competitions in 3 of our five autumn sports: football (boys and girls), volleyball and cross-country (boys and girls).
“These sports will move to an eight-week intramural season (UHS only) in order to continue to provide a full and competitive sporting delight for those athletes. The internships will take position after school, as they would in a typical year, and each team will expand a schedule of competencies on the site, which will be structured as sports competitions typical of the best schools, with officers, scores, timeline, social media coverage, etc. However, all competitions will be college athletes to restrict our outdoor exposure.
“Playing intramural sports still has some risk, but it is more controllable by University. Further, while we are in hybrid learning, our intramural competition does not change the risk to other students. If an athlete contracts COVID-19, other athletes may have to quarantine, but the risk does not spread to other community members in our hybrid classes.
“Because tennis and golf are low-threat outdoor sports with minimal shared gadgets and the ability for the competition to maintain sufficient physical distance, college high school children’s golf groups will participate in the IHSAA season as planned. We take additional precautions during these competitions to reduce the already low transmission threat, and we will delay or cancel competitions if epidemics spread in our competing schools.
“The first day of the IHSAA season for women’s golf is today, and the first day of the IHSAA season for men’s tennis is Monday. Both sports will have normal workouts next week. For these athletes, IHSAA’s bureaucracy and physics are due before the first day of practice: player packages for those sports will be distributed as soon as possible.
“While I think this resolution is the most productive for our school in those complex times, I also sense the emotions of sadness that some athletes and families would possibly feel about wasting their IHSAA festival season. I’m sorry about that loss, too. I know that’s vital for us to give our athletes a memorable, fun and competitive fall season, even if they compete with each other. The physical and intellectual benefits of the game in a typical year are many, but they are even more for our student. athletes right now.
Call star journalist Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.