Throughout this pandemic there have been situations that just don't make sense. For example, why can restaurants be open for a football game from 1-4 pm, but not 8-11 pm? Or why are kids playing basketball an hour away in Massachusetts but not here in NY? And now, on a hyper-local level, why kids are participating in giant indoor soccer tournaments, but not 5 on 5 basketball?
The Governor gave the green light to high risk sports in NY last Friday. Sort of. He is letting the health departments in each county make that determination. With the clock ticking away to the February 1 deadline, county officials are being thrust into the unenviable position of having to tell high school athletes that no, despite what the Governor said on Friday, you will not be playing after all.
I understand why- the infection rate is still pretty high here. It's higher than other parts of the state. I get that. But why pit each county against each other when they are all part of Section 2 sports? If Rensselaer County says ok, that means Troy athletes can compete in things like basketball, hockey, wrestling and other sports that their peers in Albany and Schenectady can't. What that also means is that kids would be able to play their sport on a travel team, and just travel an extra 10 miles to a neighboring county to do so. Again, some things just don't make sense.
What happened to our regional approach? Remember that? The COVID dashboard? When the numbers were determined by region, rather than individual counties? What happened to "We're all in this together"?
Oh right. That went out the window with "14 Days to Slow the Spread".
We were joined by Albany County Executive Dan McCoy this morning. Hear what he had to say.