Outdoor sports get the green light - Vacaville Reporter

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When the California Department of Public Health announced its new guidelines for outdoor and indoor youth and recreational adult sports last month, there was good news in the rather lengthy document.

But you had to read to the very end to find it.

That final section states that outdoor moderate-contact red-tier sports can be played in the purple tier with an adjusted case rate equal to or less than 14 per 100,000 under certain conditions.

Solano County, still in the purple tier, is under the 14 per 100,000 threshold. That means that the Vacaville Parks and Recreation Department can now offer adult softball. It also means that Little League and T-ball have the green light and that basketball can be played on the city’s outdoor courts.

Indoor basketball and indoor volleyball are still on hold.

“We’re super excited to be able to truly offers sports programs again that aren’t just outdoor conditioning,” said Jennifer Baker, one of the Parks and Recreation Department’s recreation coordinators. “We haven’t set a date yet for adult softball. We’re hoping for very early May. We have to get our umpires in order and get the ball rolling… We have to adjust to the new guidelines and make sure all our i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed.”

Those guidelines include informed consent by participants (in terms of the risk of COVID transmission), and, to the greatest extent possible (the wording says “strongly encouraged), face masks during play, physical distancing during play, and hygiene and sanitation.

The guidance says that balls or other objects or equipment can be touched by multiple players during practice and play if hand hygiene practices are followed.

Interestingly, the guidance also says that if competition for high- and moderate-contact sports is permitted to resume in a county pursuant to the new guidance, competition is not required to cease if the county’s adjusted case rate exceeds the 14 per 100,000 threshold.

Residents of Vacaville will now see the rims and nets of the basketball courts at public parks restored and the barriers removed from the softball and baseball fields. Outdoor basketball can be played, but the above guidelines are, as they state, “strongly encouraged.”

“The Parks and Recreation Department wants people to be able to go out and play but we just want them to be safe,” said Baker, “and I think that’s how the guidance was worded.”

The department has allocated the fields for Little League for tryouts and practice and the leagues are taking registrations for their normal spring season.

“They are going to be paving the way and we will be following suit (with adult softball and T-ball),” said Baker.

Baker said a committee which will include the city’s fire chief, a representative from the Solano County Public Health Department and one from the Parks and Recreation Department will be meeting to decide on how to apply the new CDPH guidelines.

“There are going to be guidelines for physical distancing like in dugouts if they are used at all,” said Baker. “Masks are going to have to be worn off the field for sure. Immediate households can attend for18-and- under sporting events, but there will be no gatherings between households. The adult events cannot have spectators.”

T-ball is scheduled to start at its normal time, the first or second week of July.

“If everything trends the way that it is going, we can offer our normal season following whatever guidelines are in force at that time,” said Baker.

Her department is already offering tennis, pickleball, and P.E. in the Park. She said if the county takes too long to move into a less restrictive tier, Park and Rec may offer outdoor volleyball.

Al Arevalo, who contracts with the city to do his Just4Kicks soccer program, will now be able to offer his soccer development program under the new guidelines and may also form a soccer league if that can be done successfully under those guidelines.

So much of the CDPH document deals with limitations and restrictions that one has to ferret out the positives to see that it is very good news for the community. As the document states, “Outdoor activities present significantly lower risk of transmission relative to comparative indoor activities, based on current scientific evidence.”

In other words, play ball!

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