The AIA Has Voted to Continue Winter Sports

Trinity Clark

Editor-In-Chief

Last week the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) made the decision to cancel winter sports due to the rise in cases of COVID-19 across the valley. However, on Wednesday, January 13th, the AIA executive board reconvened and decided to retract this decision.

Thanks to the retraction winter sports will be starting back up on January 18th, as originally planned. Due to the short time span that these two opposite decisions have been made, some students have been left confused on what is going on. To clarify, Ironwood offers wrestling, soccer, as well as boys’ and girls’ basketball during the winter sports season. With this latest retraction, athletes should keep their eyes and ears open to news on when their teams are meeting and times for practice.

Of course, the AIA released some conditions for sports to continue during this time period. For one, each student athlete can have up to two guardians attend each game. Secondly, all coaches and athletes are required to wear masks or gaiters for the entirety of every game/contest. Thirdly, all coaches must keep track of any symptoms a student athlete has or does not have during a practice (fever, cough, sore throat, etc.) using the COVID-19 Athlete/Coach Monitoring Form. For all teams opposing each other, a copy of this form must be submitted so that all teams understand what the opposing teams’ health was before the game. Also, any athlete that has been confirmed positive with COVID-19 must feel out the COVID-19 Return to Play Form before coming back to practice. Finally, if any of these conditions are not followed the AIA will no longer officiate those teams’ games.

The Peoria Unified School District stated that they are “thrilled to continue to offer a winter sports season to all of our students.” While there is no guarantee about what will happen in the future, many students around the Ironwood campus have expressed their gratitude about being about to play their sport. The Eagle’s Eye Newspaper wishes all athletes and coaches good luck as they traverse what is sure to be a unique season for them.

Image Credit: sydney Rae on Unsplash