Three weeks into the winter sports season, the Arizona Interscholastic Association Executive Board is allowing parents and legal guardians of participating student athletes into events — regardless of where the event is taking place.
For the first three weeks of the season, each home athlete was allowed to have up to two legal guardians at each event. Family members of the athletes on the road teams were forced to watch on livestreams, if those were offered. But on Friday, Feb. 4, that policy was tweaked.
“The Executive Board today announced that due to improving COVID-19 metrics [decreasing COVID cases, increased hospital bed capacity, etc.], up to two parents or legal guardians may attend their student-athletes’ home and away games as allowed by the school and county guidelines,” AIA Sports Information Coordinator Seth Polansky said in a statement released on Friday.
The decision to not allow visiting parents caught backlash when Gavin Stella, a goalkeeper on Chandler’s Basha High School, was knocked unconscious following a collision in a road game against Queen Creek Casteel High School. Stella’s parents could only watch on a livestream.
In the aftermath of that, Richard Obert of the Arizona Republic reported that Stella’s father, Jason, requested that the AIA allow visiting parents into games.
Another parent, Tiffany Hunt, whose daughter plays on the girls soccer team at Gilbert’s Perry High School, started a moveon.org petition. In that, she noted that a livestream is completely ineffective for a parent whose child is injured in a game. She added that even the livestream option is not always there, as not all games are streamed.
One thing that’s important to note is that while the AIA may permit the parents of visiting players to attend, the final decision lies with the host school. Parents and guardians are encouraged to check with the host school before traveling to see any of their children play games.
All fans attending games are required to wear masks at all times and adhere to social distancing protocols.
The ruling allowing visiting fans to attend games went into effect on Monday, Feb. 8.
