City commissioners shirked the advice of their Parks and Recreations staff, voting Wednesday to reopen fall sports at municipal facilities.

Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Affairs Director Ashley Edwards recommended that fall youth and adult sports remain canceled due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

However, in a unanimous vote, commissioners moved forward with reopening sports, asking that leagues not run through the city submit safety plans to be reviewed by officials. They also moved to develop plans to reopen city-run sports and reserved the right to reassess the opening if cases of the virus climb.

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In making the recommendation, Edwards said she looked to Gainesville, which has kept its fall sports suspended. The Leon County Commission voted to keep its fall sports, except for cross country, closed last week.  

“We would have close to 5,000 people between youth and adult sports this time of year,” Edwards told commissioners. “I never thought I would be coming to you and recommending something like this. This is not a situation we take lightly at all and it’s been a difficult time for all of us as we look for ways to keep our community safe and participants safe.”

Edwards was also recommending that The Meadows soccer complex – which was open by rental-only – stay closed and the city maintain restrictions on tennis and pickleball courts that limit use to every other court.

Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox made the motion to reopen sports – which include tackle and flag football, cheerleading, volleyball and upper level baseball and softball – noting the balance between allowing kids to return to organized sports and maintaining safety in relation to the pandemic.

“I do want our children to play. They do need to play,” she said. “We’re all cooped up. I believe we need some organized outlets. These organizations have already put together their own safety plans. I want to see if we can find a way to let the children play.”

Her motion also asked staff to look at working with the Downtown Improvement Authority to develop plans for small gatherings to replace Winterfest and other large events that take place downtown. Tennis and pickleball facilities will fully reopen. 

Included in her motion was a requirement that groups, like Warner Soccer, Tallahassee Babe Ruth Baseball and various other youth sports leagues, develop a liability aspect of their plans to take responsibility for any virus-related issues that arise.

Kip West, who serves on the board of Babe Ruth, said returning to sports is sorely needed for kids.

“Please consider a way to implement the COVID safety plans and implement them in a way that would allow all of our kids to quickly and safely return to sports,” West said. “Our kids need this for their health and mental and social well being.”

Andrew Warner, the president of Warner Soccer, said before the vote that the city’s take on keeping sports closed meant teams had to travel outside of the region to play.

“We’re free to travel outside the county and play state tournaments and national tournaments then return to the county,” Warner told commissioners. “There seems to be an irony in our messaging.”

Commissioners also unanimously approved opening Trousdell Aquatics Center to host a request by the Leon County School District to host competitions there.

Next steps include City Manager Reese Goad working with LCS on an arrangement that would allow swim meets. Details have not been made public yet. 

The recommendation by Edwards was to suspend consideration of such requests citing concerns over how many people could be in attendance for a meet – each swimming team has roughly 20 to 40 members and includes coaches, volunteers and aquatics staff required to run the meets – which could be present on the pool deck.

She told commissioners that would require the pool to close to the public for a full day for a proposed district meet and for four hours for dual meets. She also said there was currently a shortage of lifeguards working.

She said LCS has agreed to pay for lifeguards.

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.

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