Section IV postpones indoor track indefinitely

Last week, the Interscholastic Athletic Conference joined the Southern Tier Athletic Conference in pushing back the winter high school sports season to Jan. 4. Even if that date does come to fruition, indoor track will, in all likelihood, not be a part of the sports that return to play.

Section IV elected to suspend the indoor track season indefinitely due to the New York State Department of Health restrictions on indoor gatherings.

Big track and field meets can feature teams from upwards of 50 schools in the same facility, which is obviously not safe during a pandemic. Section IV track and field coordinator and Trumansburg coach Neil DeRaiche (Duh-Ray-sh) explained that there were simply too many roadblocks to try and have a season.

“We can’t get facilities,” DeRaiche said. “Colleges aren’t giving them up because there are too many unknowns, too many questions and too many issues with the event taking place. So, even if I put a third of the amount of teams in a facility and I had the coaches and everybody, we would still go over the number limit per New York state for the amount of people in a place at a time.”

DeRaiche and Section IV Executive Director Ben Nelson tried what they could to make modifications and accommodations to work out something with the colleges, but that wasn’t going anywhere. As a specific example, Ithaca College, which hosts the Bomber Invitational, won’t be opening any facilities until February.

“We were trying to put all these proposals out to the colleges saying, ‘What if everybody wore masks? Everybody will get their temperature taken before,’” DeRaiche said. “I tried saying the seniors will have parents come to one meet. I totally understand where the colleges are coming from. Facilitywise, we tried our best.”

The goal, at the end of the day, is to keep student-athletes active. To do so, the Section has proposed that schools could hold dual meets in the winter outdoors if weather permits. That’s a big “if” in this area, but the opportunity is there.

“We still would like to hold indoor and train and do all that,” DeRaiche said. “If we have a winter that allows it like this week of 70 degrees, then schools could choose to do a dual-meet type deal. It’s outside if we by chance have a good winter. We could keep it under the numbers. But right now, just logisticwise, it’s pretty close to impossible to hold indoor meets with the amount of people and stipulations, and we just know it and colleges are concerned, which they should be.”

Holding those dual meets would be a great opportunity for the athletes who haven’t been able to compete since the end of the last indoor track season due to COVID-19. DeRaiche explained how important it could be.

“It gives those kids still an opportunity to train and be part of something safely because the schools will be responsible,” he said. “We’re really hoping, for the kids’ sake, that they’re not losing everything. Especially if basketball starts and all these other sports [have] limited stuff going on, these kids aren’t left out because they need some sense of normalcy. It’s a mess right now.”

It’s been a strenuous year, and the uncertainty of everything has taken a toll on everyone. DeRaiche believes any sort of competition would be a significant weight off the backs of these athletes.

“I’m hoping for those kids that we have this ability where they can have some sense of belonging and mental health and safety and everything,” he said. “We do have athletes that are planning on moving on to the next level, college, as well. We want to make sure we do everything we can to prepare them.”

DeRaiche also touched on the senior athletes, who don’t want to share the experience of last year’s senior athletes who were unable to participate in a final outdoor track season.

“Right now, the kids are struggling with so much,” DeRaiche said. “I spoke to a senior parent, and there’s no sense of normalcy. Everything is so confusing with schools going off and on, and I think it would help all of their mental health and well-being a lot if we got to do it safely and make sure that everybody’s going to be protected.”

As much as DeRaiche wants to see his team together again, he understands that safety is priority number one. As the Section IV track coordinator, he will continue working to find the best solution to bring sports back into students’ lives.