Swampscott Joins Salem In Pressing Pause On Winter School Sports

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — As winter season high school athletes across the North Shore laced up sneakers and skates for the first official workouts since the basketball and hockey state championships were canceled in March, Swampscott and Salem athletes face at least a wait to find out when, and if, they will have a season amid a recent spike in coronavirus rates.

Salem Public Schools announced last week that they were delaying the start of winter season until at least Jan. 4, while Swampscott indefinitely postponed the start of winter practices that were to begin on Monday.

"Like several other surrounding communities, we opted to delay the start of the winter sports season, pending additional feedback from the Board of Health," Swampscott Superintendent of Schools Pamela Angelakis told Patch on Monday. "We will continue to seek guidance from medical and public health professionals as we determine a course of action that prioritizes the health and safety of our students, families, teachers and the community at large."

Salem Superintendent Stephen Zrike emphasized last week that at this point the hope in that city is to have basketball, swimming and gymnastics at some point between the start of January and the end of February when this year's winter season finishes.

"I want to be clear that this is not a cancellation," Salem Superintendent Stephen Zrike said. "I've had some questions about that. It is a delay of the season."

Lynn Public Schools have already canceled their winter sports season.

The rest of the Northeastern Conference remains on track to practice this week and play a two-month schedule that includes rules modifications designed to limit contact.

While the conference, and most communities across the state, had what was largely considered a fairly safe and successful fall season in outdoor sports such as cross country running, golf, field hockey and soccer — with rule modifications as well — winter brings more challenges with sports competing indoors where virus spread is considered much more prevalent than outdoors.

"We want to make sure we are monitoring for spread and make sure we are carefully planning health and safety protocols," Zrike said.

Coronavirus cases rose across the North Shore in last week's state report with Danvers and Salem joining Peabody as cities or towns at "high risk" for community spread, according to state metrics.

There are also the fiscal impacts of the virus-related restrictions of winter sports this year. Because only a fraction of fans will be allowed inside rinks and gymnasiums due to social distancing guidelines the "revenue" sports will cost more money than they will generate.

Safety protocols will put more strain on budgets than they did outdoors because they will have to be more extensive. Rental costs of some area rinks and pools have also increased, while smaller rosters means a reduction of user fees to pay for those increases.

More Patch Coverage: No Salem High School Winter Sports Until 2021

Winter MA School Sports Will Get A Shot With Modifications