Is it safe to be having national tournaments right now?

[luvsoftball101]

I understand that everyone wants to get back out on the dirt and back to normalcy, but is it safe to be having big tournaments that draw from all across a state or tons of teams from across the nation? Obviously, if families are traveling for these tournaments, it is worth the risk for them individually, but is it fair to their local communities and the areas these tournaments are to possibly be exchanging germs? COVID cases are on the rise pretty much everywhere except the Northeast, and because of our failure to get the virus under control the economy, schools, national health, etc. are suffering and will only continue to. I get playing games against local/regional teams with proper precautions but I personally think these huge tournaments are a bit unsafe and could have some pretty serious unintended consequences. The only level I could see this possibly making sense is 16u/18u with college recruiting, but for safety and financial reasons I feel like live-streaming local games would be good, especially because D1s can't go to these tournaments. Thoughts?

 

[riseball]

Unless the streaming is free to the general public D1/2 coaches cannot watch. Think companies like FloSoftball will stream games for free?

 

[InsidePitch]

Stay home if you're scared. Sorry if that offends. I tend to be a "I'll make the call" kind of guy and I ain't scared of attending events. I'm not going to whisper in your ear but that's the way I see it.

 

[Bubrox]

We'll know in 2 weeks..........

 

[_MIA_]

Stay home if you're scared. Sorry if that offends. I tend to be a "I'll make the call" kind of guy and I ain't scared of attending events. I'm not going to whisper in your ear but that's the way I see it.

He was talking about what it would do to the surrounding community. Thing is, there is already community spread in most every state so I am not sure how much worse it would be by people crossing borders...We went to a Nationals..we did an airbnb and ate all of our meals in the house. Only time we left was to go to the games. Personally I don't go to Nationals to have my kid site see anyway, we go to play good teams and different teams then we see around here every week..

 

[Westwind]

Well.... we were supposed to go to a National which was more like a regional tournament. (We originally planned to go to Sioux Falls.)

A player on my team was tested for her job and tested positive. Poof, season over. Nose swabs for everyone instead!

 

[BT3100]

Yes it is

 

[Westwind]

Unless the streaming is free to the general public D1/2 coaches cannot watch. Think companies like FloSoftball will stream games for free?

I did not know this- interesting tidbit!

 

[InsidePitch]

He was talking about what it would do to the surrounding community. Thing is, there is already community spread in most every state so I am not sure how much worse it would be by people crossing borders...We went to a Nationals..we did an airbnb and ate all of our meals in the house. Only time we left was to go to the games. Personally I don't go to Nationals to have my kid site see anyway, we go to play good teams and different teams then we see around here every week..

I imagine the surrounding communities that are struggling with covid will cancel their tournaments.

 

[luvsoftball101]

He was talking about what it would do to the surrounding community. Thing is, there is already community spread in most every state so I am not sure how much worse it would be by people crossing borders...We went to a Nationals..we did an airbnb and ate all of our meals in the house. Only time we left was to go to the games. Personally I don't go to Nationals to have my kid site see anyway, we go to play good teams and different teams then we see around here every week..

I meant more that these tournaments are a convening spot for girls from different parts of a state and even country, thus if somebody (player, parent) were to be asymptomatic they could accidentally spread it to a wide group of people unknowingly who would then bring it back to their own communities and initiate spread in their own communities that way.

For context, there was a group of three boys from our medium sized town who went to a football ID camp where one boy and two of their parents were infected, but before they realized they were sick/were showing symptoms they came back to town and hung out with big groups of people, went to the grocery store, etc. They knew the risks of going to the camp, but impacted a lot of other local people negatively through their decision. While most cases associated with this were mild, an adult whose case could be traced back to this football group ended up on a ventilator in the hospital as a result of this and has been a disaster for many involved. I guess my question was is having big softball tournaments safe/worth a similar potential risk? DD's in college now so not on the tb scene and don't know the precautions being taken and don't have any skin in the game.