Guidelines for summer sports fans, athletes

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer baseball and softball season has arrived with games slated to begin on Monday, June 15.
The Humboldt Wildcat girls’ softball team and the boys’ baseball team open their seasons with JV-varsity doubleheaders at Fort Dodge St. Edmond on June 15. The Wildcats’ first home games will be played on June 17 against Clear Lake.
Because the coronavirus is real and in our communities in Iowa, Humboldt activities director Greg Thomas provided a press release on guidelines and recommendations from the state, listed below.

By Greg Thomas
Humboldt Activities Director

Summer high school baseball and softball is here. In some ways it will look the same. In many ways, it will look differently. With that being said, we are excited the athletes and coaches will have an opportunity to have a summer season.
We have several guidelines and recommendations from the Center for Disease Control, the Iowa Department of Education, the Governor’s office, the Iowa Department of Transportation, the Iowa High School Athletic Association and the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union.
We have been and will continue to be in contact with our local public health department as well. As many of these recommendations and guidelines will likely look similar, but perhaps slightly different at each venue you visit this summer.
Each district is doing what they feel is best in terms of their facility and community. All game venues, fields and facilities will be asking each of us in attendance to abide by posted rules, guidelines and recommendations.
This is crucial for the summer sports to run as smoothly as possible. We are all making decisions with one main goal in mind: to keep our student-athletes, coaches, school personnel, umpires and our spectators as safe as we possibly can, while keeping the integrity of the game of baseball and softball intact. Your patience and cooperation is a must, more than ever before.
As a spectator, we encourage you to bring your own lawn chairs. We anticipate very limited bleacher seating at home and away contests. There may be some venues where the bleachers are completely off limits.
Many places will be extending their dugouts outside the fence down the first and third base sides all the way to the foul poles to allow teams to social distance the best they can. Some will likely be using bleachers to help with social distancing of the teams due to dugout sizes.
We will expect, as a spectator, you will adhere to all but not limited to the following guidelines and regulations:
1. No concession stands are allowed to be open.
2. No one should attend if they are:
a. Feeling sick.
b. Have a sick family member at home.
c. Your temperature is 100.4 or higher.
3. No one should attend if they are experiencing any or a combination of the most common symptoms of COVID-19 such as:
a. Fever 100.4 or higher or chills.
b. Cough.
c. Loss of taste.
d. Shortness of breath.
e. Headache or muscle/body aches.
f. Fatigue.
g. Sore throat.
4. No sunflower seeds.
5. No spitting.
6. Practice social distancing, 6-feet apart, with everyone that is not in your family. This is expected in the bleachers, in lawn chairs or standing along the fence.
7. Admissions:
a. Many places will not be taking admission.
b. Some will be asking for free will donations to cover costs of umpires, etc.
c. Some places will charge as usual.
8. We encourage everyone to bring their own hand sanitizer and use it often.
9. Do not chase and/or retrieve balls or home runs.
As a spectator, you will have to decide for yourself if attending high school baseball and softball games is right for you and your family.
We will rely on everyone doing their part in order to have a successful, safe and healthy summer sports season. We all are counting on each other to do our part. This is still a very fluid situation.
Please visit the IGHSAU and the IHSAA websites for more information. Thank you for your attention, cooperation and positive approach to the baseball and softball season. We are cautiously excited for our athletes and coaches to have a summer season!
GO CATS!