By Andy Loigu

As the Garden State has experienced a scary spike in the number of coronavirus cases in recent weeks, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association has announced that it will make a final decision, by Nov. 20, regarding how it will handle the approaching winter sports season.

The state’s governing body for high school sports has kept the lines of communication open to member schools and asks for ideas and patience as it mulls over its plans. 

“Last week, I had a lengthy call with the Department of Health and followed with a detailed email with our preliminary plans,” said Colleen Maguire, the association’s chief operating officer, at a recent public meeting.

Governor Phil Murphy has announced a ban on out-of-state travel and competition at the high school level for indoor sports. 

Also, much discussion has focused on access to facilities such as community or privately owned swimming pools, and ice skating rinks. Most public schools do not have such facilities on campus and make arrangements for their use with their local town boards. 

As of this writing, a winter session called Season 2 is expected to run from Dec. 3 until Feb. 17, to be followed by Season 3 (mid February to early April), set aside for fall indoor sports which were not played this year, such as volleyball and gymnastics. Small schools, in particular, lack the facility availability to schedule multiple sports at the same time.

The state was forced into a full lockdown last spring, something the officials hope to avoid, but the number of COVID cases is the largest it has been since the spring.

Certainly, we love our sports. However, the safety of the athletes, coaches, officials and everyone involved in high school winter activity has to be the highest priority.

Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.