Q-and-A with VPA's Bob Johnson: How did COVID impact athletes in the fall sports season

When the state's health leaders announced in August that, under specific restrictions and guidelines for COVID-19, Vermont high school fall sports could happen, an air of uncertainty remained.

How would masks affect play and players? Could we make it through a season without an outbreak and a rash of cancellations and forfeits? Is 7-on-7, one-hand touch football really going to work?

From the perspective of the Vermont Principals' Association, the 2020 fall season had its issues — how could they not? — but after the final titles were handed out on Nov. 7, athletes and teams made it to the finish line relatively unscathed.

In the week after Championship Saturday, Bob Johnson, the associate executive director of the VPA, spoke with the Free Press for an extended phone interview to assess the fall sports season.

(Editor's note: The question-and-answer session is edited for clarity and length).

More:UVM delays start of winter sports for 2020-21 season

BFP: Does the VPA consider the fall season a success?

Johnson: Yes, we consider it a huge success. When you consider where we were back in August and all the questions that people had at that time and the answers that we didn’t have, to be sitting here now a couple months later to have gone through and conducting a season …. I think that it was a huge success.

BFP: In some cases, celebration and action photos by media outlets, the Burlington Free Press included, captured athletes who weren’t in 100% mask compliance. Was that a concern?

Johnson: Sure, they raise concerns. But I think overall schools did a really good job of implementing the mask compliance. It wasn’t 100% perfect, it could have been better, we understand that. But again, you are dealing with young students, you are dealing with emotions and sometimes it just got carried away with them.

(Editor’s note: Johnson said he was not aware of any team-associated outbreak during the fall season).

More:Vermont H.S. winter sports will happen during COVID. What you need to know.

BFP: Did schools and teams abide by the guidelines during the fall season to the best of their abilities?

Johnson: I believe they did. Again, there were issues with masks coming down sometimes. But I think between the schools and the officials, they did a pretty good job. The students I talked to, nobody wanted to be wearing masks, we understand that. But on the other hand, it gave them the opportunity to participate. They were willing to do what they needed to do.

BFP: When it came to guideline compliance, how did you manage complaints from parents and fans?

Johnson: Most of the time we referred them back to the school. Schools were very responsive to that. It never got to a point where we were threatening a school to keep them out of a tournament or a regular-season game. We just passed on concerns as we became aware of them.

BFP: What was the biggest complaint you received?

Johnson: Actually the biggest one I heard wasn’t about players, but about spectators and how many were at an event and not wearing masks. Again, that was something that was dealt with at individual schools. I wish I could tell you 100% spectators abided by the rules — they didn’t — and there were some cases schools had to tell people to put their masks on or they would have to leave the game. A number of schools were more than willing to do that because they understood. It was actually more complaints about spectators than the players.

BFP: As an organization, would you have done anything differently this fall?

Johnson: That’s a good question and I really don’t know. When we look back to August, there were so many unanswered questions and I’m not sure there was anything we could have done differently. Would I have liked to seen volleyball played indoors? Sure, I would have loved to have seen it, but they had an outdoor season and from everything I saw it went very well. Would I have liked to have had 11-on-11 football? Sure. There are some things you wished could’ve happened, but I think overall the season went extremely well.

BFP: And we made it through the season without any stoppage.

Johnson: Yes. You have to take into consideration what was hanging over our head: At any time our season could’ve been stopped. That was a nervous energy everybody had.

There are so many things that could’ve gone wrong. The people at Thetford — they did such a huge job to pull off a cross-country championship with 500-600 kids involved over one day, it was incredible. The football coaches getting their kids used to playing a different kind of game. I think they did an incredible job with it.

More:What the return of high school sports looked like in Vermont

BFP: This has been reported on before, but the VPA had little input in the decision-making process with state health leaders or the task force. Do you want to have more say in future decisions?

Johnson: I think the system that we have works. Is it perfect? No, it’s not. Could we have had more say? Sure. But it allows for input at different levels and then eventually it works its way up through the state. Those decisions are going to be based on medical evidence and the state’s medical experts. On the flip side, we are not the medical experts. We understood how important it was for athletes to be out there from a mental health standpoint.

BFP: It’s understandable why indoor track and wrestling can’t happen this winter. What’s your message to those sports’ athletes, coaches, fans and parents?

Johnson: The message is, we understand their concerns. There’s a lot of frustration and anger and I can understand that because just like the spring, here are some athletes who are potentially in their last year of eligibility and suddenly can’t participate in their sport. But there’s just no way you can do wrestling without getting away from that personal 1-on-1 contact with each other. I know there are some states that will allow wrestling and I don’t know how they are doing that. Vermont has taken a very conservative approach toward COVID-19 and I think that’s part of the reason we have such a low rate.

At least we know indoor track people have an outdoor season that is coming up. Part of the concern with indoor track, are the facilities that we have. At any track meet, you could have 400-700 kids that are in there. How do you do that in a confined facility? I know how crowded they are — how could you possibly do it?

BFP: Will there be any fundamental changes to how hockey and basketball are played this winter?

Johnson: We are not going to see fundamental changes. We are going to be discussing things like, how do you maintain 6 feet of distance on a hockey bench or basketball bench? How do you play only two times a week with three days between in each game — how does that impact the schedule?

Dr. Mark Levine (Vermont’s Health Commissioner) has been very clear about the fact there have been no reported cases of COVID that are the result of on-the-field or on-the-court or on-the-ice transmission. It’s always been related to other outside activities, it’s not been related to a game-by-game transmission. That’s great.

Editor’s note: Individual sport committees met in November to work on guidelines for the upcoming winter season. Monday, the VPA’s Activities Standards Committee was scheduled to go over those recommendations and finalize regular-season and tournament dates, among other matters.

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Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @aabrami5.