Considerations for Youth Sports | CDCIn Pennsylvania, no youth sports practices are permitted until Green Phase, and then it's no contact only. Coaches should check with their insurance and USA Hockey before entering any rink or having contact with players while in Yellow or Red Phase; they may not be covered by insurance and USA Hockey may have its own sanctions against coaches who do participate on-ice or in off-ice in-person practices while in Yellow or Red.
Of note in CDC article:
Any competition is a high-risk activity and competition with teams traveling to different geographic areas is highest risk.
"If organizations are not able to keep in place safety measures during competition (for example, maintaining social distancing by keeping children six feet apart at all times), they may consider dropping down a level and limiting participation to within-team competition only (for example, scrimmages between members of the same team) or team-based practices only. "
"Sports that require frequent closeness between players may make it more difficult to maintain social distancing, compared to sports where players are not close to each other. For close-contact sports (e.g., wrestling, basketball), play may be modified to safely increase distance between players.
For example, players and coaches can:
--focus on individual skill building versus competition;
--limit the time players spend close to others by playing full contact only in game-time situations;
--decrease the number of competitions during a season.
Coaches can also modify practices so players work on individual skills, rather than on competition. Coaches may also put players into small groups (cohorts) that remain together and work through stations, rather than switching groups or mixing groups."
Health of players
"Players at higher risk of developing serious disease. Parents and coaches should assess level of risk based on individual players on the team who may be at higher risk for severe illness, such as children who may have asthma, diabetes, or other health problems."
(Note: This would mostly likely also need to apply to coaches, officials and parents. Anyone over 60, or with heart problems/high blood pressure, diabetes, obese, should most likely not be in rinks. Also, anyone who works in high-risk occupations like medical, retail, essential "public facing" employees, should think about limiting contact with players.)
Rinks will be putting together new procedures and protocols to keep staff and customers safe (no locker rooms, dressing outside the rink and coming in with hard guards on, limits to numbers on the ice, no spectators, etc). It is imperative that all team players and adults follow these procedures so rinks can -- to put it bluntly -- survive. The less hassle they have from parents/players, the more likely they will be able to stay open.