Competitions remain on hold for Anchorage high school athletes

Delay-of-game penalties keep coming for Anchorage high school athletes.

The Anchorage School District on Friday announced that full sports practices still can’t happen, eliminating the chance that some teams would begin competing next week.

The city’s COVID-19 numbers are keeping schools in high-risk mode, meaning athletes may continue to meet for conditioning workouts but they must remain 10 feet apart.

“ASD will look to begin full practices once the average daily case count indicates a medium-risk situation. After moving to full practices, if the numbers hold steady, we would proceed cautiously towards a first competition with a revised season schedule,” the district said in a written statement.

When the district allowed Anchorage teams to begin conditioning on Aug. 17, officials were hopeful full practices would soon follow and most sports other than football would be playing by next week. “Labor Day weekend will be a big one as long as we get a lot of help from our community,” Kersten Johnson, ASD senior director of secondary schools, said at the time.

That won’t happen though. Anchorage’s 14-day rolling average of new COVID-19 continues to keep schools in the high-risk category. Full practices that include close contact between participants can’t happen until numbers drop enough for the district to move to medium-risk mode.

[Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: 121 cases reported statewide Friday, no new deaths]

The activities impacted are football, flag football, cross country, volleyball, swimming, riflery, tennis, gymnastics and cheerleading.

High school sports started in parts of Alaska last week, and for four football teams in Fairbanks, the ramifications were nearly instant. Four of the district’s five football teams have canceled games scheduled for this week because of the novel coronavirus.

A player tested positive for COVID-19 after Saturday’s game between West Valley and Lathrop, and both programs were suspended Monday.

On Wednesday, the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District said two players from North Pole who participated in last Friday’s game against Eielson later showed symptoms of the disease. It recommended that both teams cancel games scheduled for this weekend.

Eielson called off its game against Valdez, and North Pole canceled its game against Homer. Homer will instead play Seward in a 2 p.m. game Saturday in Homer, according to KSRM Radio of Kenai.

In Anchorage, the school district uses a 14-day average of daily new cases to determine its risk level. Anything over 29 puts the district at high risk, and as of Friday the average was at 37, according the state data.

Earlier this week, ASD said no COVID-19 cases have been reported since Anchorage teams began conditioning-only practices Aug. 17.