COVID Preventative Measures Helped Eager Travel Basketball Teams Return to Play

 Across the country, different regions have begun to take preventative measures to ensure the safety and well-being of their athletes as travel sports have fallen right back into full swing. 

   For the student-athletes, not much has changed. For spectators, on the other hand, their normal viewing experience has been altered.

     Relating to SVHS, the girls’ basketball program has recently started up an outdoor conditioning program at Altimira Middle School, and have implemented similar safety measures as the tournaments above.

  Member of the girls’ varsity team and a junior at the high school, Audrey Powers, stated that “(her) coaches are doing their absolute best with the measures they are taking. (The team) is required to wear masks when (they) arrive and when (they) leave, and during the workouts, (they) each have a spot that is 6 feet away from others.”

   Recently, local teams have been traveling to large venues in Rocklin and Sacramento, where precautionary measures such as the necessary temperature check and hand sanitizer use have been implemented, not to mention the strict social distancing guidelines. 

   As for the atmosphere of the tournaments, there are noticeably fewer spectators and the energy and excitement are considerably less intense than before.

  Many of the venues have put in place a “one spectator per athlete” order to ensure minimal capacity, which helps limit the available hosts for possible cases. 

  A large basketball event center in Rocklin, Hardwood Palace, recently held numerous teams from around the North and East bay for their annual Octoberfest Shootout tournaments.

   The facility released a statement prior to the games announcing,  “There will be a limit on spectator capacity: there will be 1-2 spectators allowed per athlete. No more than 30 people should enter the building as part of a team (including players, coaches, spectators).”

   These cautionary actions are believed to help stop the spread of the virus, which is a necessary action in these dire times.