Reopening RI: State Set To Allow Sports To Kick Back Off In June

NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI — It's almost time to play ball in Rhode Island once again.

Gov. Gina Raimondo announced during her Thursday news conference that youth and adult sports team workouts will be allowed to resume during the expected start of phase two of the state's coronavirus economic reopening on Monday. She said sports should be focused on individual and team practices and drills in phase two, and that games, leagues and tournaments could restart as soon as July 1, as part of phase three of the reopening.

"Because activity is important we want to enable sports this summer," Gov. Raimondo said. "When you are done with school, we want you to get back out there."

She said adult leagues will be able to proceed on the same timetable as youth sports.

Raimondo said all indications are that the state is not experiencing a surge in the data used to determine whether it is safe to move forward with the reopening — including rate of new hospitalizations — since the expiration of the stay-at-home order on May 8. Therefore, phase two is expected to begin next week with a return to the fields, courts and rinks part of the fresh allowances.

She said there will be initial restrictions on sports that include having stable groups of 15 or less together for practices, having coaches wear face masks, frequent cleaning of equipment and not using shared equipment, whenever possible.

"It's not going to be the same as last summer," Raimondo said in a direct message to young athletes. "But it is going to be better (than the last two months). ... You're not alone. It's going to be strange. But it's going to get better."

She added that while children, teens and younger adults have shown to be less affected by the coronavirus than older age groups, there is still concern they could be asymptomatic spreaders to the greater population.

"Kids are in contact with adults," she said. "Although they ought to be safe, they could be good spreaders of the disease."

Raimondo previously said that summer camps that focus on athletic skill development would be allowed, but expressed concern about full team activities that would necessitate close, physical contacts among competitors.

But that stance appeared to change over the past week. She declared: "There will be youth sports this summer in Rhode Island," when questioned about her hard-line position on Wednesday, and on Thursday said summer leagues will be allowed barring a downturn in the coronavirus infection data.

“We will not be allowing league sports or tournaments (in phase two) because we don't want you seeing different groups of (athletes) each day and traveling all over the state,” she said. “We hope that will be allowed in stage three in July. But in phase two we want you to focuses on practices and drills.

“I am very hopeful that come the first of July we are able to allow some more league sports and tournament sports like we are used to,” she added.

She said the allowances apply to all team sports in phase two – including the opening of hockey rinks. She said, however, that boxing and wrestling would not be allowed in gyms as part of their phase two reopening.

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