High school athletes in Lancaster County will be returning to competition Monday after the Lincoln-Lancaster Health Department announced Thursday its plan to lift restrictions on youth sports after a three-week pause.
With that will come new safety layers and a heightened sense of awareness as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to reach new peaks.
"With the ability now to get back into the arenas, the gymnasiums and various other competitive locations, we intend to follow these protocols very diligently, and we understand that they've been strengthened so we can add an additional layer of safety to them," Lincoln Public Schools Superintendent Steve Joel said during the city's weekly COVID-19 news conference on Friday.
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Health Department Director Pat Lopez said the three-week pause was necessary. It allowed city and school leaders to strategize, reevaluate and prepare for a return to practice and competitions.
The 15 high schools in the county, including 11 within the city limits, are working on extracurricular activity plans, which must be turned over to the Health Department for review before teams can hit the gyms and pools for practice next week.
The plans must include specific actions such as reducing spread, illness monitoring, establishing masking and social distancing guidelines and setting attendance limits. Joel did not offer any specifics on gameday attendance during Friday's news conference.
Some school districts in the state have limited attendance at sporting events to parents only. The Metro Conference in Omaha is capping attendance at home basketball games and wrestling meets to four household members per participant.
"We and they (city and health leaders) believe that high school sports can continue because of the protocols that we have in place," Lincoln Pius X principal Tom Korta said.
The three-week pause, announced Nov. 13, did receive criticism from parents and athletes, especially as the rest of the state pushed forward with the start of winter sport practices Nov. 16.
Joel said LPS supported the directed health measure "because we always want to do our part to be able to drive down the numbers to the degree that we can," he said. "But we also know that sports and activities keep kids in school, and keep them engaged and help them perform better academically, so we're grateful that we're going to receive an opportunity to get back to this."
Some basketball teams will begin competitions and games next week, while others have shuffled their schedules to begin competitions Dec. 18.