Keep Those Bodies Moving!
Colorado is known for its active lifestyle, but with the new age of technology and covid, that persona is slowly evaporating into the mile high air. Our youth is becoming more and more interested in playing with controller sticks rather than hockey sticks. Or a football video game, rather than the real thing.
covid 19 is obviously one of the more powerful factors in the decline of youth sports right now. It is understandable that parents want to keep their children safe, and not put them in harm’s way. But youth sports organizations in Fort Collins are working along strict guidelines and rules to make sure every participant and family stays safe.
The CDC approves of youth sports activities, but as mentioned they have very strict and safe guidelines to reduce risk of Covid spread. Every youth sport in Fort Collins must follow these guidelines or ones similar to operate. This list on cdc.gov has the rubric on how to be successful on running youth sports and assessing risk during this pandemic. One main emphasis of the cdc is promoting physical distancing and new spread reducing behaviors. For example one of the many new points they have made emphasis about is ”Encouraging players to wait in their cars with guardians until just before the beginning of a practice, warm-up, or game, instead of forming a group”. This is just one of the many new tips from cdc to promote physical distancing.
Just like everything else done during this pandemic, youth sports should be done with caution, consideration, and thoughtfulness. Youth sports are just larger public gatherings, therefore we must treat it like one. Youth health organizations such as kidshealth.org say sports can still proceed, but should be done with experts guidelines that are backed up by research. They mention on their informational page that experts say that playing sports with safeguards can help protect these athletes. Some of these safeguards include: “Often cleaning of shared equipment, frequent washing of hands, and wearing masks.” The rest of their guidelines and expert precautions can be found here along with more covid 19 related questions.
Obviously everything comes with a risk today, just like going to the busy Fort Collins grocery stores comes with a risk. Just because youth sports are not deemed essential, does not mean they shouldn’t be done. Of course we want to ensure everyone is safe and healthy, but we also want to make sure our youth stays physically and mentally in shape. If we ignore the social and sports aspect of our youth right now, we will deal with even more health and mental problems than covid.
Keeping your child locked in a house for this pandemic can put great deals of social anxiety and stress on your child. According to Uchicagomedicine.org our youth had seen a serious increase in anxiety due to the division of relationships and experiences. If our youth stays in this mindset for too long it can turn into long term effects down the road. The best way to combat this is to simply get them in social interactions again. Team sports are great for teaching more communication and relationship building. Being around a team or a coach that wants you to be your best self greatly increases a person’s spirit. Mental health is an incredibly important consideration when you are determining if your child should continue youth sports right now or not.
As important as mental health is, not far behind is our youths physical health. If we have them sit inside all day long we will create an amalgamation of physical issues that are non covid related. According to medlineplus.gov, if you are constantly sitting at home and not exercising it causes increased blood pressure, higher cholesterol, increased chance for type 2 diabetes and much more. We cannot let our youth sit and slowly turn their bodies into potatoes, they have too much potential.
Youth sports are important when it comes to keeping your child active. But it is not more important than the safety of yourself, and the ones around you. Covid not something to be brushed off and overlooked. This is a real life pandemic that has serious consequences if not respected properly. If you feel remotely sick or not even 100%, don’t attend the sporting event. Respect the ones around you and take everything into consideration when thinking about playing youth sports.
Even if the necessary precautions are taken, spread of the virus is still possible. According to Aspenprojectplay.org there is “no research exploring youth sports outbreaks around the U.S., where testing and contact tracing have posed challenges in some communities”. Even though we have no research telling us that outbreaks and youth sports are linked, there has been some amounts of suspicion raised. For example a high school football team in Kentucky had 38 people contract the virus, and they think the spread was caused by one single student who recently came back on vacation.
I would be lying if I said youth sports did not come without its chances of virus spread. But I would also be lying to you if I said youth sports are not needed right now.
The active and exciting lifestyle is a staple of northern Colorado, we cannot let covid change that script. We must keep the youth moving and striving to become better versions of themselves. But we must respect covid. We need to work together and hold each other accountable and make sure we are all following guidelines. If we can come together (while staying 6 feet apart!) we can help our youth live the perfect active lifestyle northern Colorado brings.
