The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives, particularly how we interact with each other as a community. We have missed the community aspect of interacting with each other, as well as with our children while standing on the sidelines. A return to “normalcy” would include reintegrating local sports into our lives while taking all health-related precautions.
There are widely varied opinions as to how a return to local sports should happen. There are certainly those who believe it should not happen at all. However, it seems there is a consensus that it should, as evidenced by the fact that several sports leagues are going forward.
Mount Laurel Baseball recently began Fall Ball after opening registration on August 12th. They are proceeding with a multi-town league for Babe Ruth level ages 12-14, Majors 10-12 and Minors 8-9. Games started the week of September 14th.
Mount Laurel Basketball Co-President Chris Beeler announced the beginning of clinics on September 15th. Clinics provide an opportunity for players to work on all aspects of the game. The Mount Laurel Basketball Twitter feed indicated that the available slots were filled very quickly. The clinics are scheduled to start the week of September 21st.
Mount Laurel United Soccer League has proceeded with the Fall Recreation League. Additionally, the 23rd Annual MLU Columbus Date Tournament is scheduled to proceed starting on October 9th. Typically, over 200 teams from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware take part. This may prove to be ambitious but MLU has planned for the contingency of cancelling the event by establishing a refund policy.
Lenape sports have been less successful in getting started. Girls’ Volleyball started tryouts but then decided to postpone further activities until Spring 2021. More recently, Lenape Football was shut down by the Burlington County Health Department when 2 players tested positive for COVID-19. Lenape went to an all remote school program while contact tracing was conducted but has returned to the hybrid model combining in person and remote learning as of September 21st.
We all look forward to the day when Mount Laurel sports can operate without hesitation or health related concerns. We will get there. For now, we can be grateful that we are making progress.
Comments