Playoffs and COVID and TSSAA

[Joyful95]

7 minutes ago, PiRaTe._.MiKe said:

We’ve seen them dropping in our tri state area.  I just mean for the most part the school systems seem to follow the recommendation made by the TSSAA, but I know it’s left more up to the school system.  

I apologize in advance if I sound combative or rude but I do not know of any TSSAA recommendation about whether or not schools play. TSSAA did offer recommendations  about crowds and screening and how covid affected games count in the standings but I cannot find anywhere that they gave protocols for teams not to play.

[wrbaseballfan]

The TSSAA has no say in whether a team shuts down for 2 weeks or not. That's the decision of individual schools and their school system.

[PiRaTe._.MiKe]

22 minutes ago, Joyful95 said:

I apologize in advance if I sound combative or rude but I do not know of any TSSAA recommendation about whether or not schools play. TSSAA did offer recommendations  about crowds and screening and how covid affected games count in the standings but I cannot find anywhere that they gave protocols for teams not to play.

You are fine.  I thought the TSSAA recommended schools to follow CDC guidelines.  I am just thinking that if TSSAA didn’t say follow CDC, and instead said just play as you want, then I am thinking the schools would say oh...the TSSAA says let’s play, so let’s play.  See what I’m saying?  I’m just thinking “follow the leader” aspect might be in play some.   Maybe I’m completely wrong.  I’m just thinking out loud sometimes lol.  You are right though. It’s the school system, not the TSSAA.  

Edited September 16, 2020 by PiRaTe._.MiKe

[Joyful95]

Totally understand. I hate that schools in your part of the state are going through this.

[tradertwo]

Just now, PiRaTe._.MiKe said:

You are fine.  I thought the TSSAA recommended schools to follow CDC guidelines.  I am just thinking that if TSSAA didn’t say follow CDC, and instead said just play as you want, then I am thinking the schools would say oh...the TSSAA says let’s play, so let’s play.  See what I’m saying?  Maybe I’m completely wrong.  I’m just thinking out loud sometimes lol.  You are right though. It’s the school system, not the TSSAA.  

You are more right than wrong Mike. Nobody wants the responsibility of the final say in these matters, including TSSAA and the individual school administrations. That's my point... if the TSSAA would use some logic, put some practical guidelines out there for everyone to follow, and stand by them this would be much simpler. No matter who is making these decisions, they defer to some other entity's recommendations as their guide, be it local Dept. of Health, WHO, or CDC. Too much emphasis is placed upon meeting guidelines and not being practical with policy... locally, children are bused to school with no temp. checks and buses at capacity, but are checked before entering the building. Lunchrooms and classrooms are restructured to meet spacing, but bathrooms are full at break. One is ineffective without the other in practicality, but "protocol" is met. With some practical regulations in place that cover all the bases regarding TSSAA sanctioned events, some of the unnecessary quarantining of unaffected kids could be avoided if closely followed. 

   This last part is not a challenge to prove a point, but a genuine question... with several individuals across the state being quarantined, and a few entire teams as well, does anyone know of any athlete(s) who were genuinely seriously ill?

[PiRaTe._.MiKe]

4 minutes ago, tradertwo said:

You are more right than wrong Mike. Nobody wants the responsibility of the final say in these matters, including TSSAA and the individual school administrations. That's my point... if the TSSAA would use some logic, put some practical guidelines out there for everyone to follow, and stand by them this would be much simpler. No matter who is making these decisions, they defer to some other entity's recommendations as their guide, be it local Dept. of Health, WHO, or CDC. Too much emphasis is placed upon meeting guidelines and not being practical with policy... locally, children are bused to school with no temp. checks and buses at capacity, but are checked before entering the building. Lunchrooms and classrooms are restructured to meet spacing, but bathrooms are full at break. One is ineffective without the other in practicality, but "protocol" is met. With some practical regulations in place that cover all the bases regarding TSSAA sanctioned events, some of the unnecessary quarantining of unaffected kids could be avoided if closely followed. 

   This last part is not a challenge to prove a point, but a genuine question... with several individuals across the state being quarantined, and a few entire teams as well, does anyone know of any athlete(s) who were genuinely seriously ill?

Thanks trader for adding to my thoughts.  Sometimes it’s not so easy to get the right words out and you’ve helped alot

[Joyful95]

32 minutes ago, tradertwo said:

You are more right than wrong Mike. Nobody wants the responsibility of the final say in these matters, including TSSAA and the individual school administrations. That's my point... if the TSSAA would use some logic, put some practical guidelines out there for everyone to follow, and stand by them this would be much simpler. No matter who is making these decisions, they defer to some other entity's recommendations as their guide, be it local Dept. of Health, WHO, or CDC. Too much emphasis is placed upon meeting guidelines and not being practical with policy... locally, children are bused to school with no temp. checks and buses at capacity, but are checked before entering the building. Lunchrooms and classrooms are restructured to meet spacing, but bathrooms are full at break. One is ineffective without the other in practicality, but "protocol" is met. With some practical regulations in place that cover all the bases regarding TSSAA sanctioned events, some of the unnecessary quarantining of unaffected kids could be avoided if closely followed. 

   This last part is not a challenge to prove a point, but a genuine question... with several individuals across the state being quarantined, and a few entire teams as well, does anyone know of any athlete(s) who were genuinely seriously ill?

I agree with most of your points. I agree with you in that apparently covid cant infect people on school buses or in bathrooms.

I do think it is unfair to place any blame on individual school administrators when they do not make decisions about school closures. Those decisions come from the central office level and or the health department.  Smaller and more rural counties seem to be faster to shutdown athletics than most larger suburban or urban school districts.  Probably because the county health departments are not staffed well enough to do the contact tracing thus the "just shut it all down" attitude. I am fascinated by the number of people that expect the TSSAA to call the shots on playing or not playing.  Especially so since most people always question TSSAA decisions but suddenly want them to have the final say on this issue.  At the end of the day if a program gets shut down then your issue is with tour LOCAL school district and or your LOCAL health department.  Knox county, rutherford county, Hamilton county and virtually every other school system are able to play football. They have been able to overcome CDC, WHO, and health department oversight. If your local program can't overcome it then I believe you need to take a long hard look at how they are dealing with the illness. 

Sorry for the long rambling post. Sorry but I am in favor of local school districts making their own decisions but that requires a tremendous amount of personal responsibility from school boards, coaches, parents, players and communities in general.

[tradertwo]

21 hours ago, Joyful95 said:

I agree with most of your points. I agree with you in that apparently covid cant infect people on school buses or in bathrooms.

I do think it is unfair to place any blame on individual school administrators when they do not make decisions about school closures. Those decisions come from the central office level and or the health department.  Smaller and more rural counties seem to be faster to shutdown athletics than most larger suburban or urban school districts.  Probably because the county health departments are not staffed well enough to do the contact tracing thus the "just shut it all down" attitude. I am fascinated by the number of people that expect the TSSAA to call the shots on playing or not playing.  Especially so since most people always question TSSAA decisions but suddenly want them to have the final say on this issue.  At the end of the day if a program gets shut down then your issue is with tour LOCAL school district and or your LOCAL health department.  Knox county, rutherford county, Hamilton county and virtually every other school system are able to play football. They have been able to overcome CDC, WHO, and health department oversight. If your local program can't overcome it then I believe you need to take a long hard look at how they are dealing with the illness. 

Sorry for the long rambling post. Sorry but I am in favor of local school districts making their own decisions but that requires a tremendous amount of personal responsibility from school boards, coaches, parents, players and communities in general.

Sigh... I guess that it's my fault that I said "individual school administrators", when it should have been specifically stated Director of Schools (school boards don't have the authority) in individual systems. What I don't understand at all from your post, is the opinion that you have about large urban systems being more resilient to the pressure of shutting down the entire system when they are the only systems that I'm aware of who have folded up and shut down. Metro Nashville, Shelby Co., Clarksville, Williamson and Rutherford Co's, Knoxville... all have either shut down or seriously considered it, and none other than Carter Co. for a short period that I'm aware of. TSSAA's mission statement (to paraphrase) is to provide clear leadership and ensure fairness (a level playing field), so I think that ultimately the burden of a blanket policy for all to follow is on them. Of course any individual system would have the right to eclipse whatever the policy should include, but not the ability to disregard it.