Pembroke Academy Track & Field

SUBJECT: Success - NHIAA Has Dropped Their Recommendation That Athletes Wear Masks While Competing

The NHIAA has dropped their athlete mask recommendations.

It was done pretty quietly. They don't seem to have any announcement on their site, at least not that I can find. It sounds like they've told the Athletic Directors and now the schools are deciding for themselves - of course they always had that option anyway. I don't know if all schools will drop the mask mandates but I have heard that Pembroke Academy (my former school) will not be requiring masks during the last meet of the season this weekend.

I believe masks will not be required at the state championships either. 

I also don't know if it applies to all sports since I can't find any information on the NHIAA site about this change.

So we'll have to mark it up as a win. The kids will not have to wear masks in the last meet and in the state championships.

Thank you all for your support and for all of the phone calls, emails, texts, and speaking up at the school board meetings.

Speaking of speaking up, even talking to a single person can make a difference. I was at a track meet last weekend and there was a family - mother & father (plus daughter) - watching their son throw discus. They were sitting outside the track, in lawn chairs, at least 50 feet from the nearest person. They had their masks down under their chins. A woman, who claimed to be a school administrator, came over to them and told them they had to wear their masks properly or she would get the Athletic Director and have them kicked out. They argued a bit and she walked away saying she was getting the AD and that she had no choice. As she passed me I said 'Or you could just leave them alone.'

This definitely surprised her. She started telling me how she had to do it, how it was the rules, even though she didn't agree with them. I told her that she did have a choice, she could just leave these people alone. They weren't harming anyone, no one was at risk and she knew it. She continued to try to justify it and I simply kept saying in various ways that she did have a choice and she could just walk away. Finally she threw up her hands and said "I'm done with this" and left.

She didn't come back, and neither did anyone else. And the family got to watch their son in peace.

I would highly recommend that anyone interested in whether wearing masks really has any impact on the spread of coronavirus sign up for Tom Wood's e-letter and get a free copy of COVID Charts CNN Forgot and take his Covid Quiz. The data he's gathered and the charts he put together attempt to show the correlation of various lockdowns and mask mandates around the world and what should be their positive effects on slowing transmissions, cases, and deaths. Not to give too much away but it's virtually impossible to tell the difference between the states with biggest lockdowns and mask mandates and those with the least.

A few other related items that I had been planning to send out:

• A nurse in New Jersey was suspended from her job after refusing to wear a face mask in protest of the harm that she said the face coverings were causing children.
• I got a call from an asthmatic father in New Hampshire who was kicked off the field while watching his son play high school baseball. He was told masks were required on school property - indoors and outdoors - no medical exceptions allowed. He is pursuing a lawsuit. I don't know how far it has gone.
• Take a look at http://newhampshiretrackandfield.com/ and the pictures, especially the top one - this is what races look like even with the mask mandates - the vast majority of athletes pull the masks down when the gun goes off.
• Cloth Masks Do Make Workouts a Bit Tougher, Study Finds
• • Here's a scientific study whose overall findings are not particularly surprising - wearing masks while exercising decreases oxygen consumption. However I did find the size of the drop pretty scary - 29% drop in peak oxygen consumption.

Sincerely,

Brad Keyes