Many sports camps and tournaments in Vermont are forging ahead under rules and reduced capacity requirements, even as some community members remain wary about their presence amid the coronavirus crisis.
The annual Bitter Lacrosse tournaments, which normally draw thousands of out-of-state visitors to Stowe, are still scheduled to take place on the final two weekends of July this year — but unlike in the past, there will only be about 30 teams, the games won’t be held in Stowe and there won’t be a typical tournament format.
The events, which are normally large enough to clog up traffic in Waterbury and Stowe, will be held in a “far reduced format,” according to Bitter Lacrosse President E.W. Bitter.
“We’re working on a format that would comply with the current rules,” Bitter said.
Bitter declined to provide specifics about what the event will look like, saying that plans were still in the works. He said there would be games of some sort held, “but not in a multi-team, multi-game format” like in the past.
Event venues will be held within a 15-minute drive of Stowe, according to the Bitter Lacrosse website. Asked what fields would be used, Bitter said the organization was still “working out those details.” He ruled out Waterbury as a potential site.
Under current state regulations, individual games of “short-duration, incidental contact” sports like lacrosse are allowed if there are 150 or fewer people participating outdoors, or 75 or fewer inside. The guidelines, which call for all players and coaches to have a facial covering in their possession to be worn “when physical distancing measures are difficult to maintain,” do not allow for tournament-style play.
Bitter said there will be approximately 30 participating teams in this year’s event — a 70% reduction from normal capacity. Most of the teams will come from Vermont and ones from out-of-state will hail from areas that do not require a quarantine, he said.
Some community members, though, remain wary about the events.
“We are really concerned about it,” said Melissa Volansky, the chief medical officer of the Community Health Services of Lamoille County. “It’s hard to imagine how they’re going to observe all of the important safety precautions that Vermont has been so good at adhering to and, I think, that’s helped us in having a really low infection rate.”
In addition to the two tournament weekends, Bitter Lacrosse will also hold the North Country Lax Academy — a five-day lacrosse camp that takes overnight and day participants. According to the Covid-19 protocols on the organization’s website, participants will be given a rapid coronavirus test after being dropped off and will be encouraged to wear face coverings “whenever possible.”
“You can’t really maintain six-feet distance during a game,” Volansky said. “People get breathing pretty hard during games, and those are just exactly the type of situations where a lot of aerosols and things can be produced — and we know that people definitely can shed virus when they’re asymptomatic.”
“If they could do all of the distancing and all of the precautions that the rest of the community is observing, then that would be one thing,” Volansky added. “But then that wouldn’t be much of a lacrosse camp either.”
Lisa Hagerty, the Stowe Selectboard chair who is a member of the task force overseeing the town’s reopening, said there are “confused emotions” as residents of the ski town remain hesitant to host guests they would normally welcome.
“As a community, I think because we welcome — and our community value always has been to welcome visitors — it is a new emotion for us to have hesitance about receiving visitors from out-of-state who come from areas where Covid has had high incidents,” Hagerty said.
Haggerty said she feels “terribly” that Bitter Lacrosse has been forced to operate at 30% of its normal capacity.
“They have brought a lot of economic vitality to this town during the summer,” she said.
Some entities that hold sports camps around the state — including the University of Vermont, Saint Michael’s College, and the Vermont Mountaineers — have cancelled plans for their summer programs. Many other camps and events, though, are forging ahead.
At the Ice Haus — a hockey arena at Jay Peak Resort — a hockey skills camp held last week saw several dozen players on the ice going through drills. In the stands, a handful of spectators — some wearing masks — watched with mixed adherence to social distancing.
Steve Wright, the president and general manager of Jay Peak, wrote in an email that every camper signed off on having completed proper quarantine if they came from an area that required it.
Jim Neidlinger, a former Major League Baseball pitcher who operates the Williston baseball and softball academy Bases Loaded, said the six travel teams he runs are proceeding with tournaments on a case-by-case basis.
“Travel baseball right now is kind of just inching its way along,” Neidlinger said.
He said he has pulled teams out of some tournaments in areas with higher coronavirus caseloads, but is proceeding with games in states like Maine.
“If you look at how well as our state is doing, I really think as slowly as this is creeping along, we are doing the right thing,” Neidlinger said. “Eventually there has to become a time that, done correctly, events will eventually have to start.”
In Stowe, Hagerty — the selectboard chair — said she remains “a little bit nervous” about the Bitter Lacrosse events.
“Do I trust that Bitter Lacrosse is going to do everything that they can? Yes,” she said. “Do I know that kids will be kids? Yes.”
Alan J. Keays contributed reporting.
