Soccer is About to Get Started in WA

[Unregistered]

That’s ... not what the articles say. The article about Arkansas, for instance, says there have been fewer problems than feared. Thousands of schools and clubs are playing in 45 states. UK playing nationwide with similar levels. There have been very few problems, and very few stories about the lack of problems in youth sports since the absence of a problem isn’t a particularly interesting story. The few outbreaks that there have been seem to have been identified and contained (which is what the three high school stories describe).

That's... exactly what the Arkansas says. Beyond the rah-rah language the data that they point to is a much higher number than what either the Surf or Wisconsin survey purport. Also the covid numbers are increasing in Arkansas and I for the life of me can't understand why you don't see that as concerning or applicable to youth sports. The UK is not experiencing very few problems, but I hope you start to do your own reading on that rather than making baseless claims. Also, things have been contained because there is a testing protocol.

What is the Washington Youth Soccer testing protocol?

[Unregistered]

Outside of an entire team withdrawing? MLS, Colorado says hi. Glad you can chalk it up to poor management, like what we're seeing from everyone opening up. Also for the NFL, give it time. I wonder what the odds are on the next team to have to shut down. MLB? https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/m...ovid-19-cases/
https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-mlbpa-c...9-test-results

Europe?

https://theathletic.com/news/liverpo...y/iydWteIh6xuE
https://sports.yahoo.com/genoa-socce...213221582.html
https://ghanasoccernet.com/impacts-o...opean-football
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ross-continent

High school? https://www.thv11.com/article/news/h...7-f3dc79c74278
https://www.mycentraljersey.com/stor...ms/5848836002/
https://www.theoaklandpress.com/news...91550089e.html

Also all those things can happen because they got their numbers down, way way below where we are now. And it still blew up in their face.

And a lot of safety relies on trust and frankly there's way too much of this: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ol/5825520002/

especially around sports.

Lastly, a lot of college and pro sports can only open up because of a rigorous testing schedule. So that if a player tests positive, all players are tested and must be confirmed negative or quarantine for 14 days before returning to play. Our WYS rules have no such provisions. And that's the method for showing its not infectious. Test, record, report. Without testing we don't know anything other than hundreds of thousands of people are dying.

someone, anyone, please point me to the article that demonstrates U16 and below are transmitting covid 19 through soccer anywhere in the world.

instead you point to articles that revolve around adults doing dumb things and high schools that continue to play sports.

[Unregistered]

someone, anyone, please point me to the article that demonstrates U16 and below are transmitting covid 19 through soccer anywhere in the world.

instead you point to articles that revolve around adults doing dumb things and high schools that continue to play sports.

You want me to point you to studies that haven't been done? We don't have enough testing or contact tracing at this point. Here's what we need to petition for: get WYS to pay for or require testing as interclub scrimmage starts up. Record those studies, interpret and then expand to regional play under the same conditions. Interpret. Expand if safe and do it for state wide play. Don't allow play between states without a covid test.

We all agree that in younger age groups its asymptomatic that doesn't mean they can't spread it.

[Unregistered]

That's... exactly what the Arkansas says. Beyond the rah-rah language the data that they point to is a much higher number than what either the Surf or Wisconsin survey purport. Also the covid numbers are increasing in Arkansas and I for the life of me can't understand why you don't see that as concerning or applicable to youth sports. The UK is not experiencing very few problems, but I hope you start to do your own reading on that rather than making baseless claims. Also, things have been contained because there is a testing protocol.

What is the Washington Youth Soccer testing protocol?

Did I say the UK is having very few problems? No. I said there are no reports of problems with youth football. As for Arkansas, it seems they’ve gotten in 96% of their football games during the first six weeks of the season, and that there done what they should have done in cancelling games when someone tests positive. Kids are in school in person, restaurants, bars and state universities are in full swing. Their numbers are going up for lots of reasons, as they are many places that don’t seem interested in controlling the pandemic. I wouldn’t hold that state out as a model of how to do anything, but nor does the article you mentioned provide any insight on the issues at hand. My point is simply that outdoor youth sports are one of the first things that should be open anywhere, and particularly in a state with numbers as good as we have overall. States like Mass, Conn, NJ, PA, CO are among the many relatively responsible states that have been playing for a while without reported issues. There aren’t yet the resourced for surveillance testing of asymptomatic people (a good idea, but not something that has previously been done to control a pandemic); the protocols seem to call for testing anyone who is symptomatic or comes into contact with anyone who is positive, symptom checks at every practice, and various social distancing measures. Similar protocols seem to be working elsewhere, and there just aren’t societal resources for conducting a randomized study to show that everything that doesn’t seem to be a problem in fact isn’t; plenty of identified problems to get a handle on first.

[Unregistered]

Did I say the UK is having very few problems? No. I said there are no reports of problems with youth football. As for Arkansas, it seems they’ve gotten in 96% of their football games during the first six weeks of the season, and that there done what they should have done in cancelling games when someone tests positive. Kids are in school in person, restaurants, bars and state universities are in full swing. Their numbers are going up for lots of reasons, as they are many places that don’t seem interested in controlling the pandemic. I wouldn’t hold that state out as a model of how to do anything, but nor does the article you mentioned provide any insight on the issues at hand. My point is simply that outdoor youth sports are one of the first things that should be open anywhere, and particularly in a state with numbers as good as we have overall. States like Mass, Conn, NJ, PA, CO are among the many relatively responsible states that have been playing for a while without reported issues. There aren’t yet the resourced for surveillance testing of asymptomatic people (a good idea, but not something that has previously been done to control a pandemic); the protocols seem to call for testing anyone who is symptomatic or comes into contact with anyone who is positive, symptom checks at every practice, and various social distancing measures. Similar protocols seem to be working elsewhere, and there just aren’t societal resources for conducting a randomized study to show that everything that doesn’t seem to be a problem in fact isn’t; plenty of identified problems to get a handle on first.

Where in the return to play guidelines does it detail the process for quarantining or canceling games? They are advocating double headers and there's no infrastructure for contact tracing. The Arkansas article was brought up as an example of numbers that were in conflict with the surveys (not studies) that have been done. Did you read the articles as it relates to NJ? The one right below the Arkansas article. They are shutting down youth sports after opening them up because of spread. "According to a survey of 152 athletic trainers, 36 schools (23%) had a reason to shut down a workout pod of athletes and 19 schools (12%) shut down an individual sports team due to COVID-19 exposure."

We are agreed that kids are largely asymptomatic that doesn't mean not contagious. We need to open up safely. If we can't do testing, it's not safe, we'll be flying blind. Why do you want to push forward with no information, high risk to community, and no real plan from WYS.

[Unregistered]

Where in the return to play guidelines does it detail the process for quarantining or canceling games? They are advocating double headers and there's no infrastructure for contact tracing. The Arkansas article was brought up as an example of numbers that were in conflict with the surveys (not studies) that have been done. Did you read the articles as it relates to NJ? The one right below the Arkansas article. They are shutting down youth sports after opening them up because of spread. "According to a survey of 152 athletic trainers, 36 schools (23%) had a reason to shut down a workout pod of athletes and 19 schools (12%) shut down an individual sports team due to COVID-19 exposure."

We are agreed that kids are largely asymptomatic that doesn't mean not contagious. We need to open up safely. If we can't do testing, it's not safe, we'll be flying blind. Why do you want to push forward with no information, high risk to community, and no real plan from WYS.

There are 45 states playing soccer. Are we smarter than the rest??? No, it's a political decision 100%.
The kids in all sports trying to play in college are truly getting a gigantic shaft here. If my child were 12 I would be completely ok with a training year, these last couple it's a bitter pill to swallow.

[Unregistered]

Inslees updates guidance will be effective tomorrow. Most places on this side of the state will be cleared to resume games. Almost nowhere in Central or East Washington will be.

[Unregistered]

Inslees updates guidance will be effective tomorrow. Most places on this side of the state will be cleared to resume games. Almost nowhere in Central or East Washington will be.

What’s your source?

[Unregistered]

Where in the return to play guidelines does it detail the process for quarantining or canceling games? They are advocating double headers and there's no infrastructure for contact tracing. The Arkansas article was brought up as an example of numbers that were in conflict with the surveys (not studies) that have been done. Did you read the articles as it relates to NJ? The one right below the Arkansas article. They are shutting down youth sports after opening them up because of spread. "According to a survey of 152 athletic trainers, 36 schools (23%) had a reason to shut down a workout pod of athletes and 19 schools (12%) shut down an individual sports team due to COVID-19 exposure."

We are agreed that kids are largely asymptomatic that doesn't mean not contagious. We need to open up safely. If we can't do testing, it's not safe, we'll be flying blind. Why do you want to push forward with no information, high risk to community, and no real plan from WYS.

The WYS protocols do not allow for double headers. They suggest one game per week, but allow two (a game each on Sat/Sun is not a double header). They worked with their doctor to develop a raft of safety protocols, which are published on the web site. The WYS protocols require an action plan for positive tests and compliance with state and CDC guidelines (which require that symptomatic people not participate and get tested, that positive people isolate, and that close contacts get identified and quarantine). PSPL, ECNL, GA, US Youth Soccer, etc all have substantially similar protocols, and a lot of clubs have their own detailed safety protocols.

In New Jersey, some schools are shutting down sports (mostly, apparently, for a two week quarantine period) after opening up based on kids getting sick (no indication they got sick at practice rather than school). But sports in the state aren't shut back down. There were GA and ECNL games there (and in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, etc, to pick a few reasonably well run states that have generally been cautious in dealing with the virus) this past weekend. North Jersey HS football scores from this past weekend right here: https://highschoolfootballamerica.co...l-scores-live/. There are 850+ high schools in New Jersey. Many kids are attending school in person (either hybrid or full time), and only a relative handful of schools have needed to shut down due to positive test results (the state dashboard says there have been 43 reported cases in schools since reopening in early Sept).

You ask: "If we can't do testing, it's not safe, we'll be flying blind. Why do you want to push forward with no information, high risk to community, and no real plan from WYS." First, we aren't "flying blind." We now have 3 months of experience of kids playing outdoor youth sports around the country and around the world. We know we live in an area with relatively low community transmission, low positive rates, and very low hospitalization and morbidity rates. We know that kids are much less likely to get sick than adults, and that outdoor environments are relatively safe. No one did controlled studies of whether bars at 25% capacity, restaurants at 50% capacity, bowling alleys or hay rides were safe -- they made common sense judgments that these things could be done reasonably safely (presumably taking into account the costs of not allowing those activities). Just as almost every state in the country has already made with respect to youth sports, that youth sports do not pose a "high risk to community." And the WYS plan and those in place in other strike me as well designed to mitigating the risk. I don't consider going forward now, several months after most states, to be "pushing forward with no information." It strikes me as something that is prudent, safe, and that could easily be dialed back if and as problems arise and dialed up to tournaments and whatnot if they don't, and that not doing so now reflects (a) a failure to realistically assess the risks associated with outdoor youth sports and (b) a failure to account for the real economic and mental and physical health costs of kids missing out on sports.

[Unregistered]

The WYS protocols do not allow for double headers. They suggest one game per week, but allow two (a game each on Sat/Sun is not a double header). They worked with their doctor to develop a raft of safety protocols, which are published on the web site. The WYS protocols require an action plan for positive tests and compliance with state and CDC guidelines (which require that symptomatic people not participate and get tested, that positive people isolate, and that close contacts get identified and quarantine). PSPL, ECNL, GA, US Youth Soccer, etc all have substantially similar protocols, and a lot of clubs have their own detailed safety protocols.

In New Jersey, some schools are shutting down sports (mostly, apparently, for a two week quarantine period) after opening up based on kids getting sick (no indication they got sick at practice rather than school). But sports in the state aren't shut back down. There were GA and ECNL games there (and in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, etc, to pick a few reasonably well run states that have generally been cautious in dealing with the virus) this past weekend. North Jersey HS football scores from this past weekend right here: https://highschoolfootballamerica.co...l-scores-live/. There are 850+ high schools in New Jersey. Many kids are attending school in person (either hybrid or full time), and only a relative handful of schools have needed to shut down due to positive test results (the state dashboard says there have been 43 reported cases in schools since reopening in early Sept).

You ask: "If we can't do testing, it's not safe, we'll be flying blind. Why do you want to push forward with no information, high risk to community, and no real plan from WYS." First, we aren't "flying blind." We now have 3 months of experience of kids playing outdoor youth sports around the country and around the world. We know we live in an area with relatively low community transmission, low positive rates, and very low hospitalization and morbidity rates. We know that kids are much less likely to get sick than adults, and that outdoor environments are relatively safe. No one did controlled studies of whether bars at 25% capacity, restaurants at 50% capacity, bowling alleys or hay rides were safe -- they made common sense judgments that these things could be done reasonably safely (presumably taking into account the costs of not allowing those activities). Just as almost every state in the country has already made with respect to youth sports, that youth sports do not pose a "high risk to community." And the WYS plan and those in place in other strike me as well designed to mitigating the risk. I don't consider going forward now, several months after most states, to be "pushing forward with no information." It strikes me as something that is prudent, safe, and that could easily be dialed back if and as problems arise and dialed up to tournaments and whatnot if they don't, and that not doing so now reflects (a) a failure to realistically assess the risks associated with outdoor youth sports and (b) a failure to account for the real economic and mental and physical health costs of kids missing out on sports.

LOL! Why did WYS take out the mandatory quarantine period from earlier guidelines? What's the reporting structure if someone tests positive? For the purposes of contact tracing sat/sun may as well be if both games were held on the same day. You should read up on those states that you mentioned because no one is doing well. Also reasonably well means that people are getting infected. We're just now finding out how bad an idea opening bars were. We should have spent more time investigating that.

How does the plan help in mitigating risk? There is no centralized reporting, no requirements and no guidelines. It literally says each club should have a plan. But NO GUIDLINES AS TO WHAT THAT PLAN SHOULD BE. I can't help that you don't understand that we don't have the information because we don't have the testing. And I can't help that you won't/can't interpret the information from the other states who have opened indicating that this is not prudent. The doctor WYS is working with is a cardiologist not a epidemiologist. I'm sure he's very smart and well trained in his field but his field is not pandemics.

[Unregistered]

What’s your source?

Governors Office staff member.

[Unregistered]

Governors Office staff member.

I hope this is true, but we’ve heard this before.

[Unregistered]

LOL! Why did WYS take out the mandatory quarantine period from earlier guidelines? What's the reporting structure if someone tests positive? For the purposes of contact tracing sat/sun may as well be if both games were held on the same day. You should read up on those states that you mentioned because no one is doing well. Also reasonably well means that people are getting infected. We're just now finding out how bad an idea opening bars were. We should have spent more time investigating that.

How does the plan help in mitigating risk? There is no centralized reporting, no requirements and no guidelines. It literally says each club should have a plan. But NO GUIDLINES AS TO WHAT THAT PLAN SHOULD BE. I can't help that you don't understand that we don't have the information because we don't have the testing. And I can't help that you won't/can't interpret the information from the other states who have opened indicating that this is not prudent. The doctor WYS is working with is a cardiologist not a epidemiologist. I'm sure he's very smart and well trained in his field but his field is not pandemics.

The state's general guidelines, which are incorporated by reference in the WYS policy, require isolation and quarantine of positive cases and close contacts. The guidelines also suggest that symptomatic people should get tested asap. No need to repeat those rules in a soccer specific guideline, is there?

How does the plan mitigate risk? Soccer is an outdoor activity, coaches wear masks, close contacts and contacts with opposing teams are minimized is various ways.

The guidelines are consistent with those published by the CDC and being used by the public health epidemiologists in states across the country that have approved return to play, and practices advocated by physicians trained in reducing the spread of infectious diseases. There have been thousands of soccer games across the country over the past couple months. Where's the evidence that some state is not doing well (i.e., contracting covid at an exceptionally high rate vis-a-vis the prevailing rates of transmission with everything else that is open) because of transmission that occurred at a soccer game or training? There is none.

I get that you've reached a different conclusion. Just realize that others (and, based on what other states are doing, MOST others) who have thought long and hard about this, read up plenty, considered what other places are doing, and also want to be reasonably cautious in dealing with the pandemic disagree with you.

[Unregistered]

I hope this is true, but we’ve heard this before.

Our club -- located in King County -- just received a 4-page document from the governors office today. We expect official guidance from WYS anytime now. It looks like King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties are all a go.

[Unregistered]

Confirmed

Guidance is for all youth sports including sports governed by WIAA

Three levels of risk for sports:
Low risk sports: tennis, swimming, pickleball, golf, cross country, track and field, sideline/no-contact cheer and dance, disc golf.

Moderate risk sports: softball, baseball, t-ball, soccer, futsal, volleyball, lacrosse, flag football, ultimate frisbee, ice hockey, cricket, gymnastics, crew, field hockey, school bowling competitions.

High risk sports: football, rugby, wrestling, cheerleading with contact, dance with contact, basketball, water polo, martial arts competitions, roller derby.

County COVID-19 Activity Level
The risk of COVID-19 spread linked to sporting activities depends on the level of COVID-19 spread in the community. The following COVID-19 activity level classifications are based on the Department of Health’s school reopening decision tree recommendations, which classify counties based on their current COVID-19 activity level.

HIGH LEVEL COUNTY COVID ACTIVITY >75 cases/100K/14 days OR >5% positivity

Team practices and/or training can resume for low, medium, and high risk sports if players are limited to groups of six in separate parts of the field/court, separated by a buffer zone. Brief close contact (ex: 3 on 3 drills) is permitted. It is preferable for the groups of six to be stable over time. Attendance rosters should include group contact information. Each league, organization, or club must publish and follow a “return to play” safety plan. Any practice or training activities that can be done outdoors should be done outdoors.
Scrimmage, intra-team competitions, and league games or competition allowed for low risk sports, but are discouraged if school is not conducting in person learning.
No tournaments allowed.
No spectators allowed except for one parent/guardian/caregiver for each minor-aged participant allowed. Spectators must maintain physical distance of at least six (6) feet between each person. No spectators allowed for participants 18 and older.

MODERATE LEVEL COUNTY COVID ACTIVITY >25-75 cases/100K/14 days AND <5% positivity

Attendance rosters should include group contact information. Each league, organization, or club must publish and follow a “return to play” safety plan. Any practice or training activities that can be done outdoors should be done outdoors.
Scrimmage, intra-team competitions, and league games allowed for both low and moderate risk sports. Scrimmage, intra-team competitions, but no competitions of any kind against other teams, allowed for high risk sports.
No tournaments allowed.
No spectators allowed except for one adult parent/guardian/caregiver for each minor-aged participant allowed. Spectators must maintain physical distance of at least six (6) feet between each person. No spectators allowed for participants 18 and older.

LOW LEVEL COUNTY COVID ACTIVITY <25 cases/100K/14 days AND <5% positivity

Attendance rosters should include group contact information. Each league, organization, or club must publish and follow a “return to play” safety plan. Any practice or training activities that can be done outdoors should be done outdoors.
Scrimmage, intra-team competitions, and league games allowed for low, moderate, and high risk sports.
Tournaments allowed.
Spectators to follow current gathering size limit in the Safe Start Plan.