When the country went into quarantine six months ago, many children, young adults and professional athletes lost the freedom to practice, compete, or simply play outdoors. Slowly, those freedoms are being regained with new safety routines.
John Taylor, Rock Hill’s sports, recreation and tourism director, provided information for
Rock Hill Herald reporter Alex Zietlow’s update on York, Chester and Lancaster county’s plans for reviving sports tourism in the aftermath of COVID-19.
According to The Herald, a month after the start of the pandemic, Rock Hill was forced to cancel 20 sporting events, leading to a loss of roughly $9 million in economic impact. Since the Rock Hill Sports & Event Center’s reopening on July 9th, it has hosted numerous basketball tournaments. Within six weeks of reopening, the facility generated almost $6.9 million between jobs created, hotel stays and visitors dining at Rock Hill restaurants.
“Of course, our revenues are climbing back up, but we’ve got a big hole to climb out of,” Taylor told The Herald.
Back in May, “Gov. Henry McMaster signed an executive order allowing youth sports competition with or without spectators to begin June 15, following social distancing guidelines,” Zietlow wrote.
According to the City of Rock Hill website, there are many events this fall that community members can register for. Adults can participate in kickball, while youth sports include football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and softball. Tennis is also offered for all ages.
While there has been great concern about how high school, college, professional and community sports would continue during the COVID-19 pandemic, children’s play time and physical education has also been impacted.
After young students returned to campus on Tuesday, Sept. 8, John Kirell, principal at Ebenezer Avenue Elementary School, was able to describe how things are running on campus.
“[The] PE model looks very different, obviously, than it would have looked in the past,” Kirell said.
He explained that with not enough time in the school’s daily schedule to disinfect the physical education room after each class, all PE is now outside.
“The district allowed flexibility with mask policy,” Kirell said. “Students have mask breaks for outdoor recess and PE.”
All students have PE for forty-five minutes a week, which is a step down from state policy.
“A mandated hour for K-5, but understanding the situation we find ourselves in, the state has relaxed that,” Kirell explained.
Physical education is not the only opportunity for students to play during the school day. Recess is still happening, with the length of time for each session varying by grade.
“All early childhood, 3-year-olds to kindergarten, have two 15-20 minute recess blocks a day,” Kirell said. “All first to fifth [graders] have one 20 minute block of recess a day.”
After each recess period, teachers are responsible for disinfecting all equipment. Kirell said he went to The Home Depot himself and bought high-powered disinfectant sprayers for his staff to use.
“Monkeybars, slides, basketballs, soccer balls, hula hoops, and jump ropes. Everything gets sprayed down,” he said.
Aside from exercise activities, the schools in the district had to reconfigure their in-person class schedule as well.
Kirell said Ebenezer Avenue Elementary is at “60% capacity from total traditional enrollment, and only 50% of those students come each day.”
The entire district uses “A and B cohorts” to ensure there is enough space for social distancing between students and staff on campus. In addition, approximately 42% of students district-wide chose to be online five days a week.
Although not a part of the Rock Hill Schools, Macfeat Laboratory School, located inside the Withers Building on campus, also implemented safety precautions before allowing their preschool and kindergarten students to return.
While in the classroom, students must wear masks, but they have the ability to roam free without masks while on the playground. Macfeat staff must always wear their mask inside the building. Similar to Ebenezer Avenue, all outside play equipment is sprayed down daily upon the students’ departure.
Class sizes have been limited and only two students are allowed at each play station at a time to permit social distancing.
For more information regarding City of Rock Hill sports registration, visit
https://www.cityofrockhill.com/departments/parks-recreation-tourism/sports/youth-sports-registration.
Photo by Jamia Johnson
