The chance of teenagers suffering serious harm from COVID is infinitesimal, yet we have them losing benefits of high school athletics to protect them from those odds. Yes, a teenager could infect grandparents but the elderly and other high-risk individuals should quarantine while society finds a cure or a vaccine.

As of Sept. 2, the CDC reported 14 COVID deaths — in a country of 350 million people — among children ages 5-14. The agency reports 300 COVID deaths among those ages 15-24. Given those numbers, COVID deaths among high school students probably amount to fewer than 100 nationwide. That’s about 0.000028% of the U.S. population.

Anyone paying attention knows a high percentage of teenagers ignore social distancing orders, clustering to vape, party, use skate parks, BMX tracks, and more. Yet, the virus has killed a statistically negligible number of young people. Yes, every life is precious. But, if we are going to take drastic measures to save each young life we won’t let teenagers drive — an activity that puts them and others at a relatively significant risk of injury or death.

Every human action involves a conscious or subconscious risk-reward calculation. Sitting too long increases the risk of heart attack or stroke. Walking across the street causes the risk of getting run over. The lifetime odds of any individual getting killed in a pedestrian accident are 1-in-610. In the United States, at least one person drowns in a bathtub each day. Annually, more than 2,000 children under age 16 die in traffic crashes.

We lose about 2,500 teenagers ages 16-19 to car crashes each year, amounting to 0.0007% of the U.S. population.

Few have a greater awareness of risk-reward decisions than athletes. The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research reports 30 high school football players died from direct and/or indirect football-related causes between 2015 and 2017. Healthline reports high school football causes more than 500,000 injuries each year. About 10%, or 50,000, require surgery.

Despite the risks involved in football and other high school sports, the number of teenagers in school athletic programs has doubled from 4 million to 8 million over the past 50 years. Scientific research finds active kids are healthier than inactive kids, so playing typically prevails in risk-reward considerations.

“The benefits of participating in team sports far outweigh the risks,” said Dr. Margot Putukian, director of athletic medicine at Princeton University, as quoted by Healthline.

Former Air Force Capt. Robin Wright of Monument knows it from personal experience.

“I grew up in a little town, in a blue-collar family with no education funds,” Wright said. “My only ticket was a football scholarship.”

Wright’s football talent won him a spot playing for the Air Force Academy. That led to an Air Force career, a stint coaching at the academy with legendary hall-of-famer and former coach Fisher DeBerry, and to a lucrative job as the president of a Boeing subsidiary. None of it would be possible, he said, if the state had canceled his senior-year football season in the fall.

“We are literally destroying the futures of thousands of kids,” Wright said. “Colorado kids won’t get athletic scholarships and the educations that change their futures. This especially hurts minority kids and the poor.”

Wright believes the lack of fall sports will put idle athletes at a higher risk of abusing alcohol, tobacco and drugs.

Jay Badry, director of Fellowship of Christian Athletes at the Air Force Academy, shares that concern. His organization operates a mental health crisis line and said suicide calls are spiking on his phones and nationwide among young adults and teens as a result of social isolation and the lack of organized activities.

“Social interaction is vital to the development of adolescents and young adults in the same way a baby needs physical contact to properly develop,” Badry said.

Though Colorado kids can’t play sports this year, their competitors for scholarships are playing in 39 other states.

”I’m in a state, Oklahoma, that endorses their kids to play,” Coach DeBerry told us. “I have attended games the last two weeks and haven’t seen any problems.”

Even the nanny staters who control Michigan allow teens to play fall sports.

High school athletes typically have one shot their senior year at landing a scholarship. If they don’t play this fall, they won’t have the videos needed to capture the attention of recruiters. The chances they will suffer as a result, for the rest of their lives in some cases, are high. Their chances of contracting and suffering from COVID are extraordinarily low.

This is a simple risk-reward equation, and the rewards of playing far exceed the risks. It is time to let Colorado kids play ball.

The Gazette Editorial Board