At this point it appears Colorado high school basketball players are going to have to wear masks during games in Season B — though there is a petition effort underway to get that changed.
Practices officially started this past Monday, with games beginning next week.
District and high school leaders met virtually last Thursday with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, with the focus to encourage the CDPHE to reconsider the mask mandate while playing, due to safety concerns. It was stressed that school leaders agree with and will follow all other COVID safety mitigation requirements — such as masks worn by athletes, coaches and spectators not actively competing.
The CDPHE did not back down, however, sticking to the mask rule while playing.
The push to unmask basketball players while competing has continued.
A petition was posted on change.org titled “UNMASK Colorado High School Basketball Players!” last weekend and was shared widely on Facebook. The petition is to Governor Jared Polis and the CDPHE.
The goal was to get 5,000 signatures, but had been changed to 7,500 as there were nearly 5,800 signatures as Tuesday evening.
The petition reads in part: “It is with great concern for the overall health and safety of Colorado student athletes that we respectfully write to you and ask you to rescind the rule which you recently put into place requiring basketball players to wear masks while competing.
This requirement defies a growing body of scientific data about significant negative health effects of physical exertion while wearing a mask.
This is directly from the Mayo Clinic, ‘it’s recommended that you perform low- to moderate-intensity exercise rather than vigorous exercise while wearing a mask. This is because of the decreased airflow allowed through the mask which can affect breathing and your ability to properly regulate body temperature.’
“To be forced to restrict one’s breathing by order of variance issued by the CDPHE to a board of athletic governance while engaging in an otherwise healthy activity not only makes the activity more difficult, but it also could threaten the health and safety of our athletes, especially for those who may have underlying breathing issues, such as asthma.
“To require basketball players to ‘mask up’ while competing is a penalty they should not be required to suffer. Please amend this rule to the CHSAA variance and let our athletes breathe.”
Yuma High School boys coach Dave Sheffield said he still held a glimmer of hope the mask mandate will be rescinded, “depending on if logic can depend on anything.”
Girls coach Jeremy Robinson questioned how a kid can be asked to player their hardest, but then possibly have their breathing hindered. He said it was a tough spot, adding, “We’ll do what’s asked of us.”
