Last year’s Girl’s Basketball Team pauses before a game for the National Anthem. This year’s team is ready to hit the court running and have a successful season.
Governor’s Mandates Put High School Sports On Hold
Winter sports competitions are on hold for the time being, but players are waiting in the wings for the “goahead” to practice and prepare for the upcoming season.
Governor Herbert announced a statewide mask mandate and emergency restrictions on social gatherings for the next two weeks on November 8th, . The mask mandate will be in place ‘for the foreseeable future’ wherever it isn’t possible to social distance. The restrictions limit all social gatherings to inside the home. They have also put a hold on all extracurricular activities, including sports.
So, for the next two weeks, high school sports teams in Utah will be putting everything on hold. What does that mean for teams at Alta?
Girl’s Basketball Coach Izzy Gustafson said she and her players want a season. “We want to play,” Gustafson said. “It doesn’t matter how it will look, if we have to play with masks and goggles, no spectators, weekly covid tests, or have to wear Hazmat suits, we will do it to play!”
Gustafos assured all involved from players to spectators that they will have live streaming available for everyone to watch us all season home and away.
Coach Harrington, of the wrestling team, had much less to say, but it comes to more or less the same thing. “I’m not sure what will happen… right now we are the mercy of the Governor.”
Whatever happens, it is clear that the teams want to play whatever they have to do. Even if, as Coach Gustafson so eloquently put it, they have to dedicate an entire practice to singing ‘I’m a little teapot’, they’ll do anything to play.