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Letter From the President: Regarding Athletics & Extracurricular Activities

Letter From the President: Regarding Athletics & Extracurricular Activities


Dear Families, 

Below is a statement on our system-wide decision for SCCS extracurricular activities and athletics:

Athletics (practices and games) are suspended. Akron Children’s Hospital recently released a statement confirming that children do get COVID-19. The rise of cases in Northeast Ohio has been mirrored among children. They emphasized that spread is coming via sports, after-school activities, sleep-overs, and gatherings. With safety as our guide, our Stark County administrators have agreed that athletic activities are currently suspended while Stark County is rated Level 4 until January 4. If we are reduced to a Level 3, Red, rating before January 4, athletics can resume. We will evaluate offering athletics and student organizations daily. Individual school-sponsored extracurricular activities will be evaluated by each school principal.

Athletic facilities are closed at all of our schools during this period. Athletics are suspended for schools who are learning remotely and those who are in-person. A significant number of students who have been quarantined in SCCS over the last few weeks have been due to athletics. SCCS has experienced some need for students to quarantine during fall athletics, but as winter sports began we have seen an exponential increase in the number of teams who must quarantine. At the high school level, we have had cancelled and/or rescheduled games as a result of our own teams COVID-19 concerns as well as opposing teams being on quarantine or having athletes test positive.

Elementary level athletics are approached as a system. It has been decided among our principals and SCCS administrators that the most responsible decision at this time is to suspend athletics as a system.

Contact spreads viruses. Given our high rate of infection in Stark County, we want to proactively protect our student athletes and be sure they do not come into contact with anyone who is positive for COVID-19. We want to see our teams have a season. If we take strong steps now, we should be able to resume our seasons after the holidays.

As a community rooted in faith, we hope that you will trust that our intentions are good and were well reasoned. We ask you to join us in prayer for all those impacted by COVID-19, including our own students and staff.

Sincerely,


Dan Gravo
President
Stark County Catholic Schools

Posted Thursday, December 10, 2020