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THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, March 20, 2020 Page 13 Saugus spring sports delayed to April 27 By Greg Phipps W ith the winter sports season having just ended early last week, spring sports athletes and teams were beginning to gather in anticipation of the upcoming season. Due to the news of the increasing threat of COVID-19, public school in Saugus officially closed late last week and the spring sports season was initially delayed until March 30. The date to begin the high school sports season was extended to April 27 after Gov. Charlie Baker on Sunday ordered that all schools statewide remain closed through April 6. The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) made the latest announcement Monday on the heels of Baker’s order. “These decisions are based on available information and are made in the best interest TUMBLING DOWN| from page 12 George Pike, Vic Pujo, Dave Warden, Stanley Brittan, Mecca Simirowski and Boley Dancewicz from Lynn Classical; and Jimmy Vizaukus, who a few years later I spotted walking down the Main Supply Route (MSR) as his outfit was relieving mine on Heartbreak Ridge or some such site in Korea, and I did not see him again until Founders Day in Saugus in 2002 (that day on the MSR we talked about Manning Bowl and our last encounter there in 1945); and a smiling quarterback named Rodriguez from an Air Force team at Fort Devens in 1950. He and I and Art Spinney rehashed our days ASKS| from page 5 district closed for six weeks and looked reactive. No one thinks that today. As I write this, we’ve missed three days in the classroom. In that time, Dr. DeRuosi and his team have partnered with members of the School Committee and many private organizations, including Healthy Students-Healthy Saugus, to make sure that students who depend on food at school have proper nutrition during the closure. This all came together very quickly. Saugus residents rallied together with donations and assistance, and I know at least one of my colleagues on the committee emptied his own cupboards to help children in need. Educationally, teachers are engaging with their students virtually and trying to instill some normalcy to all of this. The school administration is working on a website with educational material for students, and that should be coming online shortly. This is an unprecedented situation that schools are dealing with worldwide, and it’s certainly going to be uneven to start, but I’m encouraged by how things are going after less than a week and will watch to see how things proceed. We don’t yet know how this will impact testing dates and graduation requirements, and that’s a situation everyone else is dealing with as well. I know college seniors who called their parents three states away for a ride because they were told they graduated. As to the new middle-high school, the construction is overseen by the town and I haven’t heard anything yet on a construction pause, but I do know a lot of people in that trade that are idling. I think it has to be expected and will certainly impact our timelines, especially if classes do not resume in time. I don’t think anyone can say with any certainty when things will be back to normal. I hope soon. As for what do we need to do better, or change, beyond day to day? This is going to stay with each of us. After this is over, we’ll all have a case of hand sanitizer on the top shelf of our bathroom and an emergency stash of toilet paper in at The Bowl after our game at Devens, just before we headed off to other destinies. Now, dust falling around the site of The Bowl, memories floating in the air as I drive by on a number of occasions lost in reverie and nostalgia, my wife Beth came home from work one evening with a new story to shake me up. She manages an Alzheimer’s Ward in a nursing home. “We have a new patient in our ward. He floats in and out of memory. His name is George Faulkner. I told him my name and your name. When he heard your name, he said, in an apparent moment of lucidity, of our student-athletes, schools and communities,” the MIAA posted in a statement this week. “These decisions will be revisited and adjusted as needed.” The MIAA also voted to have completion of the regular season and tournament games by June 20 with consideration of June 21 in case of weather and facility needs. The Saugus High School athletic department posted a statement last week saying that it will “ensure proper compliance with all current and future directives regarding the upcoming spring sports season” and will “adjust our preseason scrimmages when scheduling allows to fall within the MIAA’s updated framework for this season.” Regular season games would begin after the state’s directed 10-day practice period has ended, according to Saugus Athletic Director Terri Pillsbury. Any games previously scheduled prior to the new date will be rescheduled to fall within the updated season limits. A post on the Saugus Athletic Department’s twitter site pointed out that “we are going through uncharted waters” and that the MIAA “is making every possible effort to keep our student athletes health and wellbeing in mind while still trying to maintain our spring sports season.” ‘I remember a Tom Sheehan. I think he played for Lynn Classical with Harry Agganis. I played against him.’” He was a riotous and rambunctious and hard-nosed tailback for Arlington High School. We played them in 1945 at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod, a game for the troops. But old George wasn’t far off. He was almost right on the money; I spent more than half my career at Manning Bowl and most of my senior year. Not far off at all, for that old Spy Pond tailback who was losing his memory, yard by yard, like it was 4th down and one yard to Travis and Papi: My grandson Travis at 8 years of age waiting to see Papi play, hours before game time. the basement. Schools going forward everywhere will have revised policies and procedures for extended closures that teachers [and] administrators can realistically implement on a moment’s notice. That will be our focus when this is all over. But for today, I think our administrators and teachers are doing a great job in a difficult and changing situation. My thought is if the construction is halted, that may delay the move-in, and we don’t know when we’re going to get that “all clear” to send the students back. These dates are clearly tentative. Everyone’s watching. I couldn’t have predicted a week ago you’d be asking me this question, so I think we’re going to have to wait and see how the next week or so goes with regards to move-in. Personally, like a lot of people, I fear this will get worse, medically and on our lifestyles, before it gets better. I don’t have a lot of faith that warmer weather will make a difference but, hopefully, along with social distancing it’ll make an impact. It’s a serious situation. I’m writing dates in pencil. Parents and students need to take this seriously. It’s not a vacation. What’s alarming about COVID-19 is you can feel perfectly fine for a week or two before you get symptoms, and at that point you’ve infected dozens of people you’ve come into contact with, and those people have done the same. Even if you don’t get very sick, you can infect an elderly grandparent or pass it on to someone who has compromised health. As I’m writing this some of the shopping centers are closing and, hopefully, we’ll see people treat this more seriously, but you don’t know who last touched the water bubbler at the basketball court or who last touched the playground equipment. Listen to the experts. Their advice couldn’t be more clear. School Committee Member Joseph “Dennis” Gould The Superintendent and staff are doing a great job trying to mitigate exposure, feeding the students that rely on school for their nutritional food and keeping the new 6-12 on schedule. I am concerned about the seniors at SHS missing out on probably the best three months of the entire school experience in Saugus. I would hate for them to miss their prom, their graduation and go for a touchdown. Thanks for the memories! the final. Goodbye to the SHS halls as the last graduating class of this school. We do not know if construction may need to stop in the new 6-12 [middle-high school]. That could delay the moving of grades 9-12 over, but that is out of our hands. I personally would like us to be able to move in April, but again, we are in uncharted waters and do not have control at this point. The staff is working tirelessly to come up with homeschooling and should have it rolled out next week. I am confident MCAS will be postponed and there will be something worked out Statewise that will allow our seniors to continue their education in college if so desired even if we are closed for the remainder of the school year. The younger students are resilient, and I am sure they can get caught up when school starts up again. I am also confident with the dedicated teachers, paras and administrators we are fortunate to have working in Saugus; they will double down on education needs and assist ASKS| SEE PAGE 14

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