ST. LOUIS COUNTY (KMOV.com) – New guidelines for youth sports will take effect in St. Louis County Friday.

On Sept. 11, high-frequency contact sports for those over the age of 14, including basketball, lacrosse, wresting, rugby and football, will face more restrictions. The restrictions include no competitions and a maximum of 30 athletes allowed at practices.

According to Page, the positive rate between 15 and 19 years old is near 20%, whereas all other age groups the rate is near 6%. For high school athletics, Page is recommending that fall sports be moved to the spring.

[Tracking COVID-19: Breaking down cases in Missouri and Illinois]

“We know these recommendations impact the fall sports season. Neither County guidelines NOR the Youth Sports Medicine Task Force advise competitions at the high school level,” Page tweeted.

For players, it was another blow in an already-difficult year. Kate Gansen’s son is a 17-year-old senior at Parkway West, and had been hoping for weeks he would get a chance to play football this season. 

“He had a hard time getting out of bed this morning and all of his friends did,” Gansen said. “They were all texting before their feet hit the floor and the wind was just knocked out of their sails.”

Parkway School District Athletic Director Mike Roth called the news unfortunate, but a reality for hundreds of student athletes, their coaches and families.

“The frustration level that’s built up in Parkway and across St. Louis County is that we’re not allowed to play games, yet in St. Charles County, Jefferson County there’s activities going on,” he said. “It’s tough, it’s not easy. It’s a tough pill to swallow. It’s out of our control right now.”

Dr. Alex Garza, head of the St. Louis Pandemic Task Force, said even though no one under the age of 20 has died from COVID-19 in Missouri, the concern is the increase in cases within the age group and the effect that has on community spread. 

“The younger population seems to handle the disease much better than the older population or people with chronic medical conditions, but it’s really that continuing transmission in the community that is concerning,” he said. “It continues to put other people at risk by spreading the virus throughout the community.”

Garza also urged that just because the majority of deaths are among the older population, people shouldn’t solely look at mortality rates. 

“We really shouldn’t look at this as whether somebody died or not. There are a lot of other long-term issues that come with COVID, whether that’s inflammation of the heart, scarring of the lungs, problems with blood vessels, kidney damage, all of those things,” he said. 

Moderate-frequency contact sports, such as baseball, field hockey and soccer, will be able to continue practicing with no limit on the number of participants and coaches. For children younger than 14, games and competitions with other teams from the Region are allowed, but players 14 years and older will not be allowed to participate in games or scrimmages.

Sports like diving, golf, bowling, tennis and track will be able to compete and practice with a full team.

Spectators are not allowed allowed for any of the groups. 

Click here for the detailed breakdown of all the restrictions that will go into effect on Sept. 11.

During his Wednesday morning briefing, Page also said he is recommending elementary and primary students transition to in-person learning. He said the data doesn’t support doing the same for high school and middle school students.

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