Games Appear Set To Go On After All For North Shore Fall Athletes

PEABODY, MA — The kids demanded they be allowed to play.

Apparently, they are going to get their wish in the Northeastern Conference this fall after all.

Two weeks after the conference superintendents voted to delay all fall sports until possibly February due to coronavirus concerns and restrictions, and amid rallies from students at the respective member schools to reconsider, votes in Peabody and Salem on Tuesday cleared the way for what the state deemed "low risk" and "moderate risk" sports to have a season starting in October.

"It's going to be great to have fall sports," Peabody athletic director Bob Bua told Patch on Wednesday. "As an athletic director and school administrator you see both sides. It's a struggle right now to open schools, and open schools safely, and having sports too makes it more complex.

"But as an athletic director you want sports. That's why I took this job. I think it's important for the kids to have something to look forward to."

Surrounding towns, including Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead and Swampscott, will take up the issue at school committee meetings this week with momentum appearing to be on the side of allowing cross country, field hockey, golf and soccer this fall, and delaying "high risk" sports competitive cheer and football, as well as potentially volleyball because it is contested indoors, to the so-called wedge season set to begin on Feb. 22 and run through April.

Under state guidelines, each school committee must vote whether to allow schools that are starting the year next week fully remote to engage in interscholastic sports.

"I have been consistently impressed by the maturity and big-picture thinking our students and student-athletes have exhibited with regard to back to school and return to play," Marblehead Superintendent of Schools John Buckey told Patch on Wednesday. "We all want to be able to have and do more faster, but appreciate and understand the factors that preclude us from moving at the speed we might prefer.

"At the end of the day, I am excited for our student-athletes that we will be moving to offer fall sports. From what I am hearing from the NEC superintendents this is a consistent feeling."

The sports that are played will look dramatically different, in many cases, this fall with staggered starts in cross country running, the elimination of headers and throw-ins and socially distanced restarts in soccer, and a ban on penalty corners in 7-v-7 field hockey — as well as mandatory face mask requirements whenever athletes are within 10 feet of each other on the soccer field and volleyball court — among the dramatic modifications the MIAA announced last month aimed to keep players as far away from each other as possible as they compete.

A group of Danvers students organized a protest of the initial NEC decision to delay sports altogether earlier this month — where they were joined by athletes from several surrounding towns, including Peabody, once word got out of their movement.

Bua said there were more than 100 athletes out in advance of the Peabody Athletic and Wellness Subcommittee meeting Tuesday night.

"It was great to walk out and see so many students out there," Bua said. "They were all organized. They all had their masks on. You could see they really wanted this to happen.

"I definitely think it's a good thing to give the athletes who can play some type of normalcy," he added. "These are complex times, and this is a complex issue, but this is a good way to show the students that we support their needs."

Part of the reconsideration came with better coronavirus positive-test rates in area schools. Both Salem and Lynn were in the "red" hot spot range on Aug. 16 — making those schools ineligible for school sports according to state guidelines — but both Peabody and Salem improved considerably in recent weeks and were in the "yellow" caution range, along with Swampscott, as of last week.

"We need to remain flexible and nimble to changing conditions," said Buckey, who credited the respective school committees from the member schools for asking the superintendents to reevaluate the original decision. "The principals and ADs proceeded with the information they had at the time and it made sense with several communities in the 'red' to move to 'fall 2.'

"Now that things have improved in some of the league communities, I fully support looking to adjust back to a fall schedule with those sports we can field safely."

More Patch Coverage: MA Fall Sports To Look Much Different Under Rules Modifications

Massachusetts School Sports Face Many Obstacles In Hopeful Return

Kids Can Play: But MIAA May Leave Many In Massachusetts On Bench