As the population is getting vaccinated and the situation of Covid-19 in the schools that take part in the São Paulo High School league (SPHSL) improves, the Athletic directors for these schools were able to make the league come back and the matches between them begin once again. This season, the sports that are taking place are field soccer and volleyball, unfortunately it only takes place with the varsity teams for now, meaning that we may have to wait a bit more for the JV competition to return. Even though the league has come back it still has its procedures, which will be discussed and looked into in this article.
The process starts up to 2 weeks before the game, where the selection of the players is made. Due to covid, not all athletes are allowed to play. In consequence, a selection process is done by using determination, skills, commitment and academic performances. After the selection of athletes is done and all the players are selected (18 for soccer and 12 for volleyball), the next phase starts. The players who will go to the game, which always takes place on Saturdays, have to take a covid-19 test up to 48 hours before the match. The players may take the test outside of school and have a confirmation that the test was negative for covid, or the school offers the test on campus during after school for 120 reais.
After all procedures prior to the game have been completed another phase starts in the game day, two busses take all EAC athletes to the school where the match will take place. In the bus a mask should be worn at all times due to the closed environment, along with athletes not being allowed to sit beside one another so contamination levels are reduced highly. Once the bus gets to the school where the matches will take place all players have their temperature taken, while of course keeping their masks on. After all this process matches can finally be played, even though masks have to be kept on. During the match there is a tolerance for the mask being taken off, if you are far away from everyone during the match and there is no risk of contamination. However, this rule applies only to soccer since it takes place outdoors.
During matches there are also penalties for the players who are not wearing masks adequately, where the athlete is warned once, in the second warning he receives a yellow card and in the third warning he is removed from the game in soccer terms. However in volleyball the penalty is different since there is no yellow card, so the consequence is to lose points instead of getting a yellow or red card.
In conclusion, after major struggles from the AD’s from all schools the SPHSL was able to be brought back for the varsity teams, and dues to COVID-19 adaptations had to be made to the league so that it was possible to take place in the safest manner, and in a way that will not disobey the law, so lets be thankful for at least having this back and cheer on the giants in their match against chapel.
EAC PRESS 