MALDEN, MASS. (WHDH) - There will be no Friday night lights come fall this year at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School after officials decided to cancel the 2020 season due to the coronavirus.
“It’s just a kick in the gut for us,” parent and former coach Roger Almas said.
In the spring, school officials surveyed parents of student-athletes to determine their comfortability with allowing their children to play in the fall and only 16 said they would, according to a release issued by Superintendent Alexander J. Dan.
It is for that reason, coupled with the ongoing safety concerns, the school made the decision to suspend the contact football program for the fall 2020 season.
The school is the first in the state to call off its season. A tough hit for the players and coaches.
“When I told them over Zoom, three cameras went blank and started crying because of the opportunity they won’t have anymore,” Former Head Coach Danny Kelly said.
Incoming junior Daniel Iozza said, “it hit me hard cause I’ve known my head coach Danny for most of my life.”
So far, it remains unclear if the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association will sanction fall sports at all.
Along with cancelling the season – the coaches are also gone.
The school stated that coaches are hired on a year-by-year basis and with no football, they weren’t offered contracts.
“These coaches have done so much for us, they’ve trained us, taught, they teach us life lessons, not only plays and motions,” incoming junior Michael Bessler explained. “They’re mentors and are heroes to us, I love my coaches, they are the people who make me who I am today”
Officials are working on a potential replacement for football that might allow our student/athletes to participate in a non-contact alternative.
This comes as the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released a mandate stating students are to be kept three feet apart from one another in classrooms and adhere to strict protective measures when the fall term begins.
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