PEPPER PIKE, Ohio — Fall sports and related extracurricular activities at Orange High School will resume starting Monday (Aug. 17).

Lynn Campbell, superintendent of Orange City Schools, announced the decision in an email to families in the district Wednesday (Aug. 12). His statement was also posted on the Orange Schools website the same day.

It was also announced that the Orange Community Education and Recreation Lions Club childcare program, which had been on hold, will resume this fall. It starts Aug. 31.

In his email, Campbell said he made the decision to resume fall sports after consulting with Orange High School Athletic Director Katie Hine, considering guidance from the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio High School Athletic Association, and listening to input from parents.

“We will continue to require that our coaches, staff and student-athletes adhere to the safety protocols that were well established this past summer,” he said in the email.

“We will move forward taking it one step at a time, monitoring program success and the health and wellbeing of our students and staff.”

On July 31, Campbell said the district plans to be fully remote for the first semester — through Dec. 18. He also said at the time that fall sports and related extracurricular activities — including band, cheerleading and the Lionettes flag corps that performs with the band — would be suspended during the remote learning period.

He said this decision was based on the Cuyahoga County Board of Health’s recommendation July 30 for school districts in the county to open remotely and to discontinue fall sports, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Reversing his decision

In an interview Friday (Aug. 14), Campbell said the district still plans to be fully remote for the first semester. He also said he started considering the possibility of reversing his decision about fall sports last week.

“With the announcement of sports (being suspended), we had kids and parents reaching out to us, so I started looking at what the districts around us were doing,” he said.

Campbell said Hine reported to him late last week that among the 23 school districts in the Chagrin Valley Conference — which covers four counties — Orange was the only one that was either not moving forward with fall sports or not considering doing so.

“When it comes to remote learning, there are plenty of people who aren’t happy about it, and I get that,” he said. “But I put myself in the shoes of a kid.

“When they start looking around at the athletics piece, the schools in our conference are (mostly) still doing athletics. So I think that added a level of stress to them (the kids), of feeling even more isolated and left out.

“That prompted me to ask for a follow-up on the data on how our kids did with their workouts over the summer.”

No COVID-19 incidents

In his Aug. 12 email, Campbell noted that summer sports workouts were held on campus, with more than 200 student-athletes advancing through the three phases established by the OHSAA without a single COVID-19 incident.

“So I took those numbers, and looking at the social isolation piece, and how I felt that was being magnified even more so with all the other schools (in the CVC) either actively engaging in sports or having a plan related to where they were going to, I felt it was the best decision then to reverse the one on sports,” he said.

In his email, Campbell added, “Unlike schooling, which consists of a couple thousand students and hundreds of adults interacting within the confines of classrooms and hallways, these (sports) activities will consist of a small subset of participants, with the bulk of time spent outside — a much less likely place for transmission of COVID-19.”

At the Orange Board of Education meeting Monday (Aug. 12) — held virtually and live-streamed on YouTube — about 20 parents and five students asked the board and Campbell to reconsider the decision to discontinue fall sports.

Campbell said Friday (Aug. 14) that those comments did weigh into “the timing of urgency,” but he had been considering reversing the decision even before that.

“Last week, I was gathering information and asking questions,” he said. “I knew it was bigger than just sports. I knew the childcare piece had to be decided, and extracurriculars had to be decided, as well.

“(Those public comments) made a splash, no doubt about it, but I had already considered (the ramifications) of a reversal on that decision, because there were parents perfectly happy with the decision,” he continued.

“A couple folks wrote to me and said: ‘Hey, you did the right thing. It breaks my heart, and it breaks my kid’s heart, but it’s the right thing to do.’ So now I know that parent is not going to be happy.”

When the suspension of fall sports was announced, the only extracurricular activities to be discontinued were those related to athletics, Campbell said. All of the other extracurriculars in the district were still slated to move forward, so now all of those activities will continue, he said.

‘It was a tough decision’

Beth Wilson-Fish, president of the Orange Board of Education, said board members “are at varying levels of comfort” with the decision to resume fall sports.

“But we have a general consensus to proceed,” she said. “It was a tough decision. We tried to put our kids first and look at it through the lens of our children.”

Wilson-Fish confirmed that the district was considering reversing the decision regarding fall sports the week before the board meeting.

“We had paused athletics while we got more information from the county and feedback, as we continued to have discussions,” she said. “There were already discussions we were having among (the board), the administration, the athletic director, our (human resources) person and our coaches.

“We also looked at what the other members of our conference were doing (related to fall sports).”

Wilson-Fish said the board and the district have “a level of comfort with our coaches.”

“We know our athletic director and our coaches have put a lot of time into developing safe protocols for our kids,” she said. “I am impressed with the amount of time and energy they have put into it.

“We will continue to be updated on how things are going. New mitigations will be put in place to ensure the safety of our students.”

Non-contact sports can play

Campbell said non-contact sports — which as defined by the OHSAA include golf, cross country and girls’ tennis — can resume “almost immediately.” But how soon the contact sports of football, soccer and field hockey can move forward is “up in the air,” Campbell said, based on OHSAA guidelines.

Although volleyball is also defined by the OHSAA as a non-contact sport, Campbell said Orange is treating it as a contact sport because of the indoor proximity of the student-athletes involved.

“Middle school families will be contacted soon (regarding middle school fall sports), and winter and spring athletes and coaches will receive more information about resuming off-season workouts in the near future,” he said in his email.

Students who would prefer not to compete in fall sports, or whose parents would rather they did not, can opt out, Campbell said.

“It is important that we stress that participation in sports and related extracurricular activities is voluntary,” he said in his email. “Students are not to be pressured to participate, and no negative consequences should befall them if they choose to not participate.

“In the event a shutdown is ordered, I am hopeful that these programs can continue remotely.”

Even while fall sports are under way, student-athletes who are members of teams but choose not to take part in person may be able to stay engaged remotely, Campbell said.

“Our trainers are going to work with our kids to create virtual plans, so they can work out on their own,” he said. “Same with band; band members can be involved in a virtual way. So that is a nice thing for our kids.”

If any student-athletes test positive for COVID-19 while the fall sports season is under way, the district will follow the Cuyahoga County Board of Health guidelines, Campbell said.

“Obviously, the student has to be quarantined,” he said. “(The board of health) will walk you through contact tracing and quarantine procedures.

“If a kid tests positive and has been with the team, I imagine the entire team would have to be quarantined for some time. But to be sure, we would follow the board of health (guidelines) to the letter.”

Campbell added: “I’ve been impressed with our 250-plus athletes who engaged for six weeks (of summer workouts) without incident. I hate to jinx them, but based on that, I would say I’m confident that we’ll be able to move forward safely.”

As for the remote learning, Campbell said that will continue until there are clear indications that conditions and data from the Cuyahoga County Board of Health and the Ohio Public Health Advisory Alert System are improving.

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