Northern Colorado youth sports find safe haven from COVID-19 rules in Weld County

While the city of Fort Collins canceled the remainder of its youth boys basketball program this week because of COVID-19 restrictions, other area youth sports organizations have found a safe haven in neighboring Weld County.

Larimer and Weld counties are both at Level Orange on Colorado's COVID-19 dial, limiting group sports to outdoor activities involving groups of fewer than 10 people, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment confirmed in an email to the Coloradoan.

Larimer County’s health department is enforcing those restrictions, while Weld County’s health department is not.

“The county has not taken a position, per se, on restricting youth sports,” said Eric Aakko, a spokesperson for the Weld County health department. “We certainly would recommend that they follow COVID guidelines.”

Weld County's position on COVID restrictions has been questioned by residents and health officials in neighboring counties, as its number of cases and deaths outpace those in Larimer and Boulder counties, despite Weld's smaller population.

Tracking COVID:Larimer County and Colorado case, vaccine and hospital data

The Colorado High School Activities Association received a variance to COVID-19 regulations for its winter sports season, but that variance does not apply to other youth sports, the state health department said.

Youth sports generally fall under the state health department's group sports guidelines. Yet there is some ambiguity because gyms and fitness centers are allowed to operate at 25% capacity or up to 50 people indoors, under Level Orange, according to the state guidelines.

The city of Fort Collins “suspended” its youth basketball programs in November, when Larimer County moved from Level Yellow to Level Red on the state’s COVID-19 dial, and decided this week to cancel the rest of the season, Yet another youth basketball organization, Power2Play Sports, simply moved its games from its facility in Larimer County to school gymnasiums in Weld County.

And a youth wrestling organization, Peak2Peak, held a tournament last Saturday in Ault that drew about 700 participants, organizers said. Although they were competing in five separate sessions in four different gyms, there were well over 100 people in the main gym and 80 or so in an auxiliary gym during an afternoon session.

“These tournaments, they’re not able to get them done in the more densely populated areas, so everybody’s got to come out to the more rural areas,” said Nick Shoe, a parent who brought his 13-year-old son from Brighton to the wrestling tournament at Highland High School in Ault.

Winter sports:Colorado high school sports will look different this winter to fight COVID-19 spread

Everyone who entered the facility was required to go through a temperature check, wear masks when not competing and do their best to remain socially distanced from those in other households. Wrestlers competed in brackets of four, wrestling each of the other three participants once, to get them in and out quickly.

Only one parent was allowed to accompany each participant into the gym, and wrestlers were only allowed to have one coach instead of two in their corner during each match. Registration had to be completed online no later than the day before the tournament.

Zachary Mason, the northern director for Peak2Peak Wrestling, said his organization held a similar tournament the previous weekend in Ault that drew about 400 wrestlers. Another Peak2Peak tournament Saturday in Colorado Springs also had about 400 wrestlers registered to compete, he said.

“We’ve gone from where we used to wrestle two sessions and start at 9 a.m. and be done by 2:30 or 3 p.m. to where we’re wrestling from 8:30 in the morning until 7 o’clock at night. And we split it up into five sessions to try to keep it to where we’ve only got 50ish kids in the gym at a time.

“It’s been a challenge.”

More:Colorado vaccinating those 70 and older for COVID-19 as quickly as possible, governor says

Although Larimer County’s health department has had a handful of complaints about youth sports practices and games violating COVID-19 rules, Weld County has not, Aakko said.

Katie O’Donnell, a spokesperson for the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment, said “a handful” of the county’s COVID-19 cases have been traced to youth sports activities, but there haven’t been significant outbreaks.

Power2Play Sports, she said, worked closely with the health department to modify its operations over the summer and fall to comply with state and county COVID-19 restrictions.

“They did a fantastic job, I thought,” said Todd Matkin, coordinator and coach of Northern Colorado Triple Threat’s elite girls and boys basketball teams. “They followed the ordinances that allowed for ‘X’ number of spectators and spacing early and then modified their rules as needed."

One team, Matkin said, was banned from the league for refusing to wear masks or other facial coverings while playing when the county started requiring them, and spectators were prohibited when the number of people allowed in the facility at a time was reduced.

But when Larimer County moved from Level Yellow to Level Red on the state’s COVID-19 dial Nov, 24, limiting group sports to outdoor activities only and gyms and fitness centers to 10% capacity and a maximum of 10 people per room, they moved their games to school gymnasiums in neighboring Weld County, Matkin and others who asked that their names not be used said.

Weld County was also moved from Level Yellow to Level Red on Nov. 24, but the county commissioners there said they did not have the authority to enforce the more restrictive rules.

“County government continues to do what it has done since March, which is promote and encourage residents and business owners to take individual responsibility and make decisions to protect themselves, their families, their community and their business,” the county commissioners said in a statement.

That sentiment was shared by parents of several wrestlers competing in last Saturday’s tournament in Ault.

Shawn Fuss, a hospital worker from Mitchell, Nebraska, said he has seen first-hand the devastation caused by COVID-19. But he doesn’t believe allowing his 12-year-old son Brody, who won his bracket Saturday, to compete in a wrestling tournament with Peak2Peak's precautions, was necessarily risky. Brody, he said, had competed in a previous event in Ault this season and also in tournaments in Mitchell and Kearney, Nebraska.

Shoe said he was trusting others to stay home if they were sick or had symptoms, just as others there obviously trusted him and his son to do.

COVID-19 is real and a danger, particularly to the elderly population, said Brian Lemos, a school administrator in Greeley and assistant wrestling coach at Resurrection Christian High School, where Lemos' son, Eddie, is a junior. But for healthy young athletes, he said the risk isn’t significant enough to take away the opportunity for them to participate in their sport.

“For the most part, I’ve noticed in this world, in the sports world, people who are worried about it just aren’t participating,” Mason said. “And people who feel safe are coming and having a good time.

“We haven’t had any problems at all.”

Contact Coloradoan reporter Kelly Lyell at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, follow him on Twitter @KellyLyell and find him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. Support his work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.