Following its decision to cancel the fall sports season, the Burlington County Institute of Technology - which oversees Medford Tech and Westampton Tech - has canceled winter sports as well.
The district is the second in the state to eliminate winter sports for the upcoming season, joining Burlington City.
The board of education made the decision Thursday night.
In an email to BCIT families sent Wednesday, superintendent Dr. Christopher Nagy said: “… As we hear about the increase in positive COVID-19 numbers being reported in New Jersey, across the country and the world, though a difficult decision, but in the interest of student and staff safety and logistics, the Board will approve on Thursday the cancellation of the winter athletic season under COVID-19. It is our hope to reconvene athletics for the Spring season.”
Medford Tech offered boys and girls basketball, bowling and cheerleading in past seasons.
Westampton Tech offered boys and girls basketball, boys and girls bowling cheerleading and wrestling.
“I really think it’s unfair to make this decision so early. Unfair to the student-athletes. Unfair to the parents. Unfair to the coaches,” Westampton Tech boys basketball coach Cetshwayo Byrd told NJ Advance Media. “The NJSIAA set guidelines for schools to play and we don’t even get a chance to see if those guidelines work? I understand the serious of COVID-19 and it is to be taken seriously. But with the precautions we have in place, the kids deserve a chance to start the season.”
The Westampton Tech girls team is the two-time defending Central Jersey Group 3 champion. It lost to Ocean City in last year’s state semifinals, one of the final games to be played before the remainder of the tournament was canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
For the first time since 1993, Darrell White won’t be coaching.
“The only normal right now is the abnormality of it all,” the Westampton Tech girls coach said. "We never got a definite reason for opting out other than our superintendent saying it was for COVID.
"I feel bad for the kids and our program will suffer immensely. Some of the kids can go back to their particular townships and play as long as they stay enrolled. But I had a Zoom call with parents and they’re not so enthusiastic about their kids playing at a new school.
“I’m 65 years old, but for the psychology of the kids I was going to take the chance. Kids have been though a lot and the psychological effect of them not playing and seeing their peers participate in sports is going to be very hard. It’s a bad situation, COVID is bad, but I think the timing could have been better and maybe we could have pushed the start back toward February.”
The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athetic Association announced its plans for the winter season - identified as Season Two - on Oct. 13. Practices are scheduled to begin Dec. 3, with Opening Day lated for Dec. 21. An abbreviated regular season would run through Feb. 3, with the state tournament ending Feb. 17 and playing down to sectional champions.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.
Kevin Minnick may be reached at kminnick@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @kminnicksports.
"Shut" - Google News
October 31, 2020 at 12:42AM
https://ift.tt/3mAQy4T
N.J. sees two more schools shut down winter sports due to COVID concerns - NJ.com
"Shut" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3d35Me0
https://ift.tt/2WkO13c
Bagikan Berita Ini
ReplyDeleteIzin ya admin..:)
Hadir dan Menangkan hadiah nya tempat bermain poker 9 game dengan hanya 1 userid saja sudah bisa menikmati permainan kami di arenadomino(com)
silahkan langsung daftarkan diri anda bersama kami dengan pelayanan 24jam dan proses cepat yang kami berikan untuk kenyamanan anda semua dalam bermain di tempat kami segera bergabung peluang menang menunggu anda...
WA +855 96 4967353