SCARBOROUGH — With winter athletics beginning on Dec. 7 for Scarborough Schools, the department is working to provide an opportunity for every student who wants to participate under COVID-19 regulations.

As of Dec. 3, 232 high school students were registered for winter sports and 42 middle school students registered, said Jordan Ferreira, athletics assistant.

Sports and activities have been divided into three categories by the state, low risk, moderate risk and high risk, Ferreira said. Wrestling falls in the high risk category, and team swimming, basketball, ice hockey, cheer and running pose a moderate risk.

The Maine Principals Association and government agencies have delayed team-based practices and scrimmaging for moderate and high risk sports to Jan. 14, Scarborough Athletics announced on Dec. 4. This was pushed back from a previous plan to start on Dec. 14, depending on the sport.

“The winter season is really spread out between three time periods,” Ferreira said. “Hopefully, if all goes well, Monday, Dec. 7 will be really our first go at it and during that phase, teams cannot perform any competition-type drills. They can only do skill-building drills and conditioning type drills as well as being distant from each other.”

Scarborough Athletics plans to give the wrestling team access to the weight room so the student athletes can still get together, he said. The competitive season, along with volleyball, is planned to start in February.

Michael LeGage, athletic director, said that some challenges to the winter sports season includes access to facilities. The primary hockey facility was at the University of Southern Maine, but the university is not allowing outside groups to practice.

Schedules will be similar to the fall, where sports that are able to will play games in a pod system, mostly staying in Cumberland County, LeGage said. Teams will play about two-thirds of the normal schedule.

Several COVID-19 precautionary measures have been put in place, including the requirement for all coaches and student athletes to have participated in seasonal training workshops, he said.

Although some of the sports may be a challenge to pull off this school year, Scarborough Athletics wants to give students the ability to play and participate, LeGage said.

“Our goal in Scarborough has been to provide some experience for every program and every student who wants to participate in each program,” he said. “Although wrestling will be not traditional, we did want to provide an opportunity for those student athletes to connect with coaches and be able to do something.”

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