Recently, the soccer team for Santa Barbara high school started holding training. These training sessions take place Monday through Thursday. There are two cohorts of players. One cohort trains on Monday and Wednesday, and the other cohort will train on Tuesdays and Thursdays. To be able to train, the players have to fill out an online form ensuring that they do not have any symptoms of COVID-19, or have been in recent contact with those who have had symptoms. Upon arrival the players are required to wear a mask and are separated into two groups consisting of fifteen people who are separated six feet from each other. 

During training, the players social distance themselves away from the coaches and the other players. The coaches are to be the only people to touch the equipment and the training will consist of strictly only conditioning drills until the team is cleared to play with equipment. To be eligible to train with the team the player must fill out physical, insurance, and contact forms. The season for boys’ soccer is expected to start in February of 2021.

However, with Santa Barbara county moving back into the purple zone for COVID-19 which is stated in this article, starting the season will be very difficult and will have much larger restrictions, one of them including school not being able to open in hybrid form. If Santa Barbara county stays in the purple zone, playing sports will be almost impossible. This is because the restrictions that come with being in the purple zone prohibit actual playing of sports.

In the end it is possible to open up sports, but everyone who is involved would have to follow the guidelines for COVID-19 protocol very strictly. Also, even if we do follow those guidelines to perfection the  total number of cases would actually have to decrease. All of this does sound pretty grim but as long as we follow the guidelines and all do our part to get Santa Barbara county to a less restrictive zone, we still will not be able to play because of the restrictions which don’t permit players to use a ball.