Last fall, Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. instituted a policy that did not allow its athletic teams to play against schools from counties that were designated in the Red level on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.
Monday night, BCSC revisited that policy at its school board meeting and decided to begin allowing its teams to compete against schools in Red counties in conference and postseason events.
“There’s so much that went into the decision in November and December to allow extracurricluars to compete in the first place, and with the increase in COVID cases, we implemented that policy,” BCSC superintendent Dr. Jim Roberts said. “As we have turned the corner from 2020 into 2021, we started allowing students back in the building, and we wanted to come up with a plan, a practice, to allow our students to compete for championships. If a county that our students were going to be competing is Red, we wanted them to be able to compete.”
That is good news for Columbus East and Columbus North, who are on the verge of competing in conference and sectional tournaments. The East wrestlers were able to compete in Saturday’s Hoosier Hills Conference tourney at Madison, even though Jefferson County is at the Red level, and the Olympians won their fifth consecutive conference title.
This week, the North wrestlers will compete in the Conference Indiana Tournament at Bloomington South and the North swimmers will compete in a virtual Conference Indiana meet at Southport on Saturday. Although both Monroe and Marion Counties are at the Orange level, North will be able to take part in those events even if they slip into Red when updates are made today.
The East girls are set to swim in the HHC meet at Floyd Central on Saturday. Floyd is currently a Red county.
“Our blanket statement is that at least conference and IHSAA, we’re going to make sure that our kids can participate,” Roberts said. “Conference tournaments are beginning to compete, and we wanted to make sure for conference championships, our kids were able to compete in those, too.”
BCSC also is allowing East and North to play conference boys and girls basketball games since they do not have conference tournaments. That was the case with Tuesday’s East girls game against Bedford North Lawrence, which is in a Red county.
“Because it goes into determining a conference champion, we’ve allowed those games to occur, as well,” Roberts said.
Roberts said East and North teams also likely will be able to play if Bartholomew County, which currently is at the Orange level, slips into Red.
“We’re hoping like heck that we don’t get into the Red, but our plan would be to allow those kids to participate,” Roberts said. “If the numbers get too crazy, we may have to make other decisions on a case-by-case basis, but our plan will be to let our kids participate in that circumstance.”
That’s a relief for North boys basketball coach Paul Ferguson, whose team has been receiving votes in the state media poll for most of the season.
“I think it’s just another example of our administration being both thoughtful and flexible,” Ferguson said. “They continue to put the best interests of the student-athlete first, and I know our athletes and coaches are excited about the opportunity to play these games.”
East athletics director Pete Huse welcomed the adjustment to the policy.
“It helps our kids have a little more consistency,” Huse said. “It takes a lot of stress and burden off their shoulders. It allows them to have a more normal day-in, day-out schedule and allows our coaches to better prepare for opponents. Most of the games we have left are against conference or sectional opponents, and knowing that those games are going to take place is certainly a good thing for us.”
