The Great Neck school district will participate in boys and girls basketball this season, changing course after announcing last week that its schools would not opt in for any high-risk sports, including wrestling and competitive cheerleading.
The district announced last week that it would opt out of high-risk winter sports season, which began on Monday, due to caution about the coronavirus, according to Pat Pizzarelli, executive director for Section VIII, which oversees sports in Nassau County public schools.
But Athletic Director Dave Zawatson said the district took community stakeholder input into consideration before altering course and opting into the basketball season. District officials said their schools would opt into the basketball season, not wrestling or competitive cheerleading.
“We took into consideration the request to re-examine the decision,” Zawatson said. “Those requests were posed to us from many fronts within the school community. The district has decided to modify the recent decision to not participate in the February season for the high-risk sport of basketball.”
As a result of the switch to opt into basketball season, health and safety protocols were released by the district, headlined by team members switching to full remote instruction. Students will be eligible to return to hybrid instruction once a student leaves the team either at the end of tryouts or the end of the season.
Athletes are also required to submit weekly PCR tests to the school nurse and a return to hybrid instruction requires students to submit a negative PCR exam after they have left the team, school officials said.
Locker rooms will not be available for students, who are expected to report to the court already equipped in the proper gear. Games will not feature an audience and will be broadcast via YouTube when possible, officials said.
The basketball season is scheduled to run from Feb. 1 to Feb. 28. Great Neck joins Roslyn as the two North Shore public school districts to strictly participate in basketball.
