With Kitsap county COVID-19 cases on the rise, health precautions have become increasingly important. Students wear masks in schools, and try to practice social distancing, but what are school sports doing to follow CDC guidelines and maintain the health of their teams?

Bill Baxter, athletic director at Central Kitsap Highschool, said that the current COVID-19 precautions are “changing as we speak,” but there are some basic guidelines that must always be followed. 

“Masks are required for any indoor sport, while they’re practicing or working out,” said Baxter. “Fans have to wear masks inside. Anything outside, they are not required.”

New COVID-19 precautions are currently in progress for all indoor sports.

“We are going to be starting regular testing for the indoor sports coming up this winter, and any student athletes that are unvaccinated will have to be tested before the game, or at least twice a week,” said Baxter.

The current and future COVID-19 procedures could potentially be subject to change, depending on how the rest of the year looks. Baxter said that COVID-19 regulations are partly based on the number of cases in Kitsap county, and a sharp decline in COVID cases could possibly lead to a change in regulations, though he does not see that happening any time soon.

There have been several game cancellations recently due to COVID-19. Baxter explained the reason for the varsity football game cancellation on October 8th.

“We had several cases of COVID-19, and the problem was, when we traced them, we found that they [had been] on a bus together for an hour and a half each way,” said Baxter. “That means everyone on the bus is a close contact. So we started to look into who was and who wasn’t vaccinated, and we found out most of our team was going to be in quarantine for 10 days. So that took us out of the Friday game.”

For more info on school COVID-19 regulations, or to ask questions, visit the Central Kitsap High School website.