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Middle School Fall Sports Update
Our middle schools evaluate each activity considering the risks and rewards. Our top priority is the health and safety of our students and staff. Instruction and academics are the next priority. With the current situation, we feel that middle school sports present more risks than benefit at this time. For 2020-21, middle school athletics will be cancelled for the fall season, which includes volleyball, football, football cheer, and cross country.
Like all of the decisions we’ve reached related to COVID-19, this difficult decision was made with the health and well-being of our students, coaches, and community in mind. It follows our intention to maintain a safe campus in hopes that our students will be able to remain in school for the entire school year.
The nature of athletics and sports activities create significant challenges to maintaining a safe environment for our student-athletes under the threat of COVID-19. Specifically for middle schools, we are concerned about the ability to effectively sanitize school facilities and equipment each evening so they can be used by our physical education classes the next day. By comparison, BCSS high school facilities are larger and can provide more separation than our middle schools between classes during the day and extracurricular athletics.
Because we know this will certainly have a negative effect on our students, their families, and our coaches, we will consider a spring make-up season for fall sports that could involve competition with other Barrow County middle schools. This approach will reduce travel and reduce the possible spread of COVID-19. We will revisit this topic in February and make a decision by March 1st regarding a possible spring make-up for the cancelled fall season.
Winter sports typically begin in November. No decisions have been made about middle school winter athletics at this time. For questions, please contact Al Darby at 770-867-4527.