DANVERS, MASS. (WHDH) – High school student-athletes on the North Shore who are calling for sports to resume this fall plan to hold a rally in Danvers on Friday.

These students, who are a part of the Northeastern Conference, say that their sports were moved to a floating season due to state guidelines requiring schools in COVID-19 hot spots to postpone their seasons. However, Andrea Walker, co-captain of the Masconomet Regional High School varsity field hockey team, argues that not every team in the NEC is considered high risk for the virus.

“We’re just trying to get the administration’s attention because there are currently eight out of 12 teams in the NEC that are not in the COVID-19 red zone,” she said.

Walker claims that the floating season set to start in late February poses several challenges.

“For Masco, specifically, we don’t have any turf, so that makes it really difficult for us to play because we don’t have any plowable fields and it’s likely that there will be snow in February,” she said, “but for all the schools, there are a lot of athletes who participate in club sports and need to be playing on those club teams if they’re looking to play a sport in college.”

If the conference doesn’t allow competition this fall, Walker says students at Masconomet want to temporarily rejoin the Cape Ann League or go independent.

She added that her field hockey team is already playing in a summer league. She called it safe and says other sports come with a low risk of COVID-19 contact.

“There are also sports that I want to play, like golf for example, where that’s a very low-risk sport and they’re being denied the opportunity to play this fall,” Walker continued.

Friday’s rally, which is being completely organized by students, is set to begin in downtown Danvers at noon. Masconomet students plan to first meet at their high school at 11 a.m. to protest before joining the Danvers rally.

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