COVID-19 has caused many extracurricular activities to be delayed such as winter, fall and spring sports at schools in the Washoe County School District. Although all of these sports seasons were delayed, some are getting back on track or working out the safety details. 

A great deal of sports use and depend on equipment. Track and Field Coach Anna Costello and her athletes do not need to worry about sanitizing equipment, but still have rules they need to follow.

“Our major rules include all of the social distancing and safety guidelines that you normally see in school,” Costello said. “When they are running, they do not have to wear a mask, but we tell them they need to stay 6 feet apart as much as possible.”

As the district has provided schools with clear rules and directions that have to be followed, Reno High has also provided additional specific expectations that must be met.

“Reno High is asking that we have detailed records of who attends practices and who each student is in close contact with while at practice for contact tracing purposes,” Softball Coach Samantha Puzey said.

Tryouts are also a part of sports that will have very detailed instructions on how to be executed. Different sports may have different instructions, but tryouts for baseball Coach Pete Savage will occur over a three day period.

“We are an outside sport spread apart on a large field. Nine players are on defense spread throughout the field way farther than the 6 feet,”  Savage said. “Dugouts will not be used in typical fashion, as our athletes will be spread down the foul territory behind the fence.”

For many sports, interacting will be a challenge. Many coaches such as golf coach, Micheal Edwards, have said that the traditional handshake at the end of a game will not happen.

“We will not touch the flagstick on the green,”  Edwards said. “If we are in close proximity we will cover-up. They will be responsible for more than just their safety but for those around the golf course.”

As all sports have been delayed, few sports are getting back on track and occurring right now. The ski team has had two practices so far and one properly distanced ski tuning meeting. Ski team captain Cole Boyden has been on the ski team for four years now and though this year is very different he feels no nerve or stress about skiing during this pandemic.

“On the mountain, we follow Mt. Rose’s rule about wearing masks in all common areas and whenever it’s easy. We basically wear them the entire time we ski,” Boyden said. “There is no need to sanitize any equipment since we all do our own stuff.”

Sports plan to continue as the semester progresses, but will be delayed and under specific guidelines.