Local schools try to prepare for fall sports, waiting for guidance from DeWine

CENTERVILLE — From the weight room, to the basketball court and on the football field, athletes in Centerville are continuing to train for their upcoming seasons.

“We’re excited that the kids have been able to be here and train,” said Centerville Athletic Director, Rob Waiting to find out what this upcoming fall season could look like for athletes.

“We’re trying to prepare,” Dement said. “If they let us go on Tuesday, our teams start competing, less than two weeks from then.”

A quick turn-around for athletes. Just this week the Big10, Pac12 and the Horizon league postponed their upcoming fall seasons.

Dement said those decisions have had a very small impact on high school sports decision making.

“We’re very local, we’re not getting in an airport, traveling in a plane, not having lots of time on a bus,” Dement said. “We’ve made the decision to just complete against the teams in our league.

The league Centerville is in, the GWOC, they have already implemented new safety measures including QR codes.

When an athlete or a fan steps into a stadium to watch or play a sporting event, they use their phone to scan the QR code and that helps with contact tracing should anyone contract COVID-19.

“It’s been a lot of ups and downs,” Dement said. “But I think we’re going to end on an up which is a good thing.”

Dement said right now, they’re anticipating a limit to the amount of fans allowed to watch the events.

“There’s going to be a limit to capacity,” Dement said. “Right now, we’re just guessing on what it could be.”

Centerville is now working on making sure families are able to watch their athletes play and looking into streaming games for the rest of Elk Country.

“We’d do anything to give the kids the chance to compete,” Dement said. “Right now, it’s about being safe.”

Governor Mike DeWine is expected to make an announcement regarding high school sports during his Tuesday news conference.

Cox Media Group