HAMLET — Richmond County Schools has given the green light for middle school athletics to return after a two-month hiatus.
Dennis Quick, the district’s associate superintendent who oversees athletics, confirmed the news with the Richmond Observer late last week.
Middle school sports, which initially returned in November with cross country and volleyball, were shelved when RCS went back to 100 percent remote learning on Dec.14 following a spike in local coronavirus cases.
The decision to again modify the sports calendar came following the Richmond County Board of Education’s 5-2 vote last week to put students back in the classroom starting this week.
All sports seasons will need to be finished by May 19 in order to meet the state’s end-of-grade testing window.
“In our current situation, dealing with a pandemic and all the stressors associated with it, it is critical to restore some normalcy in the lives of our students,” Quick explained. “The Board, at the recommendation of our superintendent, agreed to bring students back to school face-to-face, so as a natural extension, we will continue to have middle school sports.”
“In addition, we recognize the positive values students gain from teamwork and competition,” he added. “It is good for us to have these young people interact regularly with positive role models like hard-working coaches.”
To date, all Richmond Senior High School athletic programs have been allowed to carry on their respective seasons without intervention from the district. Several programs, however, like volleyball and boys’ and girls’ basketball, have seen games canceled or postponed due to COVID-19 protocols.
The second go-around with middle school athletics will allow for the volleyball and cross country seasons to conclude, as well as fit in condensed seasons for basketball, football, golf, soccer, softball and baseball. RCS will have middle school programs adhere to guidelines put forth by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.
Richmond County’s middle school student-athletes will compete against in-county opponents only, which was also the original plan in the fall. That means games will be held between just Cordova, Ellerbe, Hamlet and Rockingham middle schools.
Quick said that when making the decision to continue middle school sports, the district used data and help from local health officials to make the call.
“We track COVID-19 related data daily and we spoke with Health Department officials from whom we received data about COVID-19 trending within the county,” Quick said. “Based on that data, we felt comfortable that after an anticipated holiday spike, positivity rates were trending downward.”
Dec. 8 was the last time middle school sports were played, and both the volleyball and cross country seasons will hold their championships within the next week.
The top two teams in volleyball, which were Rockingham and Hamlet at the break, will play a conference championship on Friday, and all four schools will run a cross country championship meet on Feb. 8, following a regular season meet this Thursday at Hinson Lake.
Boys’ and girls’ basketball will be next, starting workouts on Feb. 8 and kick off a six-game regular season on Feb. 18. Playing each opponent twice, teams will contend for a title on March 11.
Football will see teams play two games since Cordova and Ellerbe combine for a team, starting with workouts on March 8 and games on March 24, and conclude with a championship bout on April 21.
Golf will also start workouts the same day as football, play three matches and conclude with a championship round on March 30.
Boys’ and girls’ soccer, along with baseball and softball, will close out the spring slate with six-game regular seasons. Workouts for all three sports will start on April 12, followed by games beginning on the week of April 19.
Soccer championships will be on May 12, followed by baseball and softball title games on May 13.
“We see a value in ‘normalcy’ in addition to the values and life lessons gained from training, teamwork and competition,” Quick said of the benefit of returning middle school athletics.
“All of us who have participated in athletics can recall with fondness those days of camaraderie in practices and competitions.”
ROSports will continue its coverage of middle school athletics once each respective season begins.
