By Michael Letendre

On September 11, 2020, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) held a COVID Mitigating Strategies Review with the Department of Health to establish the guidelines of safely playing fall scholastic sports during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Several guidelines were established on when to practice, how many players/coaches could work out together along with a concrete slate of games.

When those recommendations were made, guess which sport was scheduled along with soccer, swimming, volleyball, and cross country?

That’s right, football — with a six game season that would have seen Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern play an extremely local schedule.

But it was a chance to compete, a time for teammates and coaches to get together and play one of the most exciting scholastic sports.

However, we all saw what happened from there.

Squat.

And now, the possibility of hitting the turf this season is shrouded in darkness.

That notion is clearly unacceptable but not surprising as all the signs for postponement were materializing behind the scenes during the summer.

In that CIAC memo from September 11, the proposition of playing football this year was in question from the get-go.

“While moving forward with the intent to play 11 v 11 football at this time, that decision is subject to change based on changing COVID metrics, additional conversations with DPH, and alignment between recommendations for interscholastic athletics and non-interscholastic sports,” according to the letter posted on the CIAC website.

Talk about putting an out clause in a contract.

I wonder how important 11 v 11 football is to the CIAC and all these decision-makers who could have allowed the sport to commence this scholastic calendar.

Let’s cut to the chase: It’s time to put pen to paper and establish a timeline for scholastic football to take place because if the CIAC isn’t going to allow scholastic football to commence this year, the organization needs to stand up, get in front of a microphone and tell those student athletes exactly why there won’t be any football this year.

The CIAC, at the very least, has to make their reasoning known instead of dangling a carrot in front of the players that they can’t ever reach.

I don’t care when you play football but someone needs to get the chains moving.

Why not just have a five/six game spring season? That would be satisfactory for all involved.

But let’s get real when dealing with football and all of these other ‘high risk’ sports.

Are you telling me — with a January proposed 19 start to the winter season — that 11-on-11 football, wrestling, dance, cheer, etc., has any chance of taking place between the winter and spring campaigns?

I’m not talking badly about Governor Ned Lamont, the Department of Health, the CIAC, or any of our local school districts but the truth needs to be revealed.

And there’s a serious question that needs answering.

Who is leading the charge to see that football, wrestling, and those other ‘high risk’ sports commence this year?

Where is the voice for the voiceless?

Yes, the players — at the beginning of the mess the CIAC helped create — were that voice.

Now, someone a bit more up the food chain needs to have his [or her] voice heard.

Some representatives of the city have to take a stand and let the governor, the CIAC and the DPH know that the scholastic football season is important and needs to go on in the spring.

Not allowing kids to play 11 v 11 football is a huge loss and a once-in-a-lifetime chance — at least for some of these young men — could be gone forever.

Plus, there’s not any summer football leagues locally that even come close to the level of fall scholastic ball.

Football needs to take place in a scholastic setting.

With all due respect, football should have been played in the fall with all those other sports.

And with the correct safeguards in place, 11 v 11 football would have gone off with precious few glitches back in September.

Don’t forget, when the Department of Health branded 11 vs 11 football a ‘high risk’ sport — postponing and eventually canceling the 2020 scholastic football season — more than a few independent leagues were formed without mass illnesses and the like.

Did someone jump the gun in these matters? Did someone not look at all the right metrics on the state level?

The soccer, volleyball, swimming, and cross country seasons all proved successful and it was irresponsible for the CIAC to say one thing and then do another with football.

The CIAC couldn’t just let football season commence on schedule and fix problems when they arose?

And how did all these other states, some worse off than Connecticut in terms of COVID numbers, get 11 vs 11 football off the ground this fall?

Friends, when scholastic soccer was a go, and possibly basketball will be a go on January 19, football deserved that same chance.

Now, there’s always some sort of risk involved.

As we saw this fall, a small number athletes in soccer, volleyball and other sports had to miss a couple games due to quarantine.

But that happens every year with sickness and the flu.

However, there’s more to the bottom line than just cancelling the football season for a student athlete. 

The reward of scholastic competition also has an effect in the classroom.

Back in my Bristol Eastern days, if I didn’t have sports, I would have been a zombie in class.

With all this distance learning going on now, I salute all the kids because being at home is a huge distraction (credit goes out to all our teachers in Bristol as well).

No one has an easy job during a pandemic.

But the window for these kids is so fleeting and there’s plenty of other chances to teach these young men life lessons that don’t involve cancelling scholastic football.

Football is unlike any sport that a young man will ever get a chance to play.

I don’t like the fact that a special group of young men won’t have a chance for that type of brotherhood and bonding if things don’t drastically change.

Some of these kids may only get to compete during their senior year, and in 2021, things are looking pretty grim.

Kids have just those four years and, poof, it’s over in an instant.

But there’s even more to it that just playing sports after school, learning a little discipline, and making lifelong friends.

If you take sports away, some of those kids could find less than desirable replacements for athletics.

Let your imagination run wild because your kids will make those thoughts reality ten times over.

Football and other activities help fill the gap between the end of the school day and when parents come home from work.

Frankly, football is an invaluable tool on so many levels and it’s time to start preparing for the season, or at least make a concrete date for our outstanding athletes.

Let your voices be heard and let them play!