NCHSAA mandates masks for athletes in all indoor sports

By Nick Stevens, Editor-in-Chief of HighSchoolOT

Chapel Hill, North Carolina – Mask usage for student-athletes participating in indoor sports will be mandated by the NC High School Athletic Association, according to an email from the association to its member schools.

Effective immediately, all persons participating in indoor skill development sessions are required to wear a mask at all times, including athletes, coaches and support staff.

This mandate will extend to training sessions and volleyball competitions from next week. All volleyball players will be required to wear a mask, even when participating in competitions.

“A student with a medical condition that would prohibit wearing a face mask during competition will need medical documentation from a physician licensed to practice medicine, a nurse practitioner or a medical assistant,” indicates the email.

The changes were made at the recommendation of the NCHSAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee and with input from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Doctors from the NCHSAA’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee have suggested that some students may find it easier to breathe using disposable masks rather than cloth masks.

“Something like volleyball, where there is space between players, but volleyball as you know is played indoors, we already recommend athletes to wear a face mask if it can. be tolerated, “said Dr Mandy Cohen, secretary of NCDHHS, on Thursday afternoon at a press conference on COVID-19. “I support wearing face coverings when possible, especially for something like volleyball where you are indoors.”

On Wednesday, the NCHSAA informed its members that a mask mandate could come.

Previous NCHSAA guidelines required athletes to wear masks at all times unless they were actively engaged in physical activity. Some schools and school districts had previously planned to require masks for volleyball athletes.

The NCHSAA said on Wednesday it had received “several reports” of volleyball teams being quarantined. The association said Thursday that this would have an impact on the lineup of volleyball, which will begin its regular season next week.

“Collectively, we must do all we can to mitigate the continued spread of COVID-19, and we are confident that the above measures will help these efforts,” the NCHSAA told its members Thursday.