The NSAA recently released the 2020-21 guidelines for the winter sports season . These guidelines include many rules and regulations that athletes and spectators should follow in order to be able to compete during the winter season. Some of these rules include:

Swim teams are encouraged to do “virtual meets.” This would mean swimmers would compete in their home pools and compare times virtually with other schools instead of all competing at one pool. 

It should be considered that boys and girls basketball games are played on separate nights or in separate gyms instead of playing double-headers.

It is also recommended that wrestling tournaments be limited to eight teams or 112 participants. If a tournament has more than four teams participating, multiple gyms should be used. 

Individual bowling teams are temporarily allowed to compete on a single lane without the requirement of having to rotate lanes.

Activities Director Jon Mauro said that Bellevue West will have precautions in place in order to make things safer while still providing opportunities for athletes to be involved in sports.

“We’re gonna try to follow the Metro Conference guidelines as much as possible,” Mauro said. “We’re not trying to do everything different, we feel like those [rules] are probably appropriate for everything we’re doing.”

According to Mauro, four visitors per participant will be allowed to attend events for basketball, wrestling, and bowling and two visitors per participant for swimming. 

“If you’re a player, participant, cheerleader, dancer, or someone playing in the game you can have family there,” Mauro said. “They’re there to represent you and watch you.”

Much like the beginning of the school year, Mauro said family members will be the only people allowed to attend games as of now.

“Right now there’s no students allowed to attend and they’re going to reevaluate at Christmas break again,” Mauro said. 

Head boys varsity basketball coach Doug Woodard said he hopes that students will be able to return to games at the beginning of the new year.

“We certainly realize at a minimum there’s not gonna be the normal crowds there especially at the beginning,” Woodard said. “The optimistic side of me hopes that by sometime in January or February that we get the crowds back and we’ll be good to go.”

Even with the amount of changes being made Woodard is confident that the boy’s basketball team will be able to persevere through the season.

“We’re hoping we have a pretty mature team so we’re hoping that they can handle it well and create their own energy,” Woodard said. “Like I say we’re gonna be optimistic.”