The folks at the New York State Public High School Athletic Association have come up with this idea for a Fall II season that would jam postponed fall sports into the 2021 spring semester. The plan comes from the good hearts of people who want to give every athlete a chance to play their chosen sport, but the whole thing looks unrealistic to me.

I can only restate what I said last month: I think it will be challenging enough to get in the winter and spring seasons.

Some of you have strong opinions about whether high schools should be playing right now. The reality is, this is a complicated subject with lots of issues at play. I don’t envy school leaders who have to make these decisions.

Here are just two issues worth thinking about.

The concern over spreading the virus is pretty obvious. Dozens of other states are playing games and I haven’t heard any horror stories, but do we really know what’s going on? Kids tend to get less sick from the coronavirus than older people do. It could be weeks before find out whether high school sports has been a significant spreader.

But we also ought to consider the affect of this pandemic on younger populations. There was a CDC study this summer reporting that 25 percent of those aged 18 to 24 in the survey had seriously considered suicide. That’s a pretty scary statistic. High school sports are one of many possible outlets for teenagers who may be having trouble coping with the pandemic.