Fall sports return; but COVID-19, fields, and program costs haunt reboot

Harvard’s student athletes were scheduled to return to the town’s sopping fields Monday to prepare for a full season of fall sports after last year’s COVID-19 hiatus. But with midday rain and three afternoon tornado warnings keeping everyone inside, few got the chance.

As of Tuesday, 211 Bromfield students had signed up for one of the school’s 14 varsity, junior varsity, or middle school teams, according to athletic director Dave Boisvert. “That’s about where we’d expect to be—pre-COVID,” he said. “Right around 200.” Another half-dozen have signed up for the co-op football or cheerleading squads hosted by Ayer Shirley but open to Bromfield students.

Bare Hill Rowing Association program director Holly Hatton told the Press Monday that 60 students, including athletes from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, have registered for crew with the popular Harvard-based nonprofit. Enrollments dropped during the COVID-19 crisis, she said. Before the pandemic as many as 90 students participated; she is hoping for 75 when fall registration closes Friday. For a complete list of teams and programs, see sidebar, page 7.

Teams are allowed to begin practice this week; competition begins Sept. 8. BA-B rowing will compete in its first regatta Sept. 18, the Community Rowing Fall Classic in Cambridge.

Getting the fields ready has been a challenge. They’re in good shape, says Boisvert, “if we could get them mowed.” He said back-to-back tropical storms were good for growing grass, but they made it impossible to mow, as did a shortage of DPW workers. “We’ve had downpours and some of our fields don’t drain. So it’s hard to mow fields when there’s standing water.”

COVID-19 remains a threat

Though the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association has left the decision to require masks—or not—to each member school district. Harvard has chosen not to require its athletes to wear masks, Boisvert confirmed in a Monday interview. But he has told coaches, he said, that Bromfield teams might be playing schools—at home or away—that require masks, in which case Harvard’s athletes would have to follow suit. “The kids have to be ready,” he said, but so far none of the 26 schools in the Midland-
Wachusett League in which Harvard competes has taken that step.

COVID-19 rules have been relaxed for parents and spectators as well, said Boisvert. Masks will not be required at games, nor will parents be asked to apply for passes to events. Boisvert will not be checking in attendees for contact tracing as he did last year. “We’re not planning on doing any of that.”

But that could change, he acknowledged, describing the situation as “fluid.” At the last league meeting, he said, most attendees hadn’t given the matter much thought. With the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant a growing statewide concern, it could all change tomorrow. “Right now I feel good about it,” says Boisvert. “I’m pretty confident that we’ll get through the fall. We just need people to continue to be vigilant and … follow the guidelines … and I think we’ll be OK.”

Changes ahead for district, state championships

Harvard remains a member of the central Mass. Midland-Wachusett League, the largest in the state, according to Boisvert. The league is divided into four to five divisions depending on the sport. Each team is assigned a division determined by its school’s enrollment and the strength, historically, of its program.

Harvard is assigned to Mid-Wach division D, which includes Clinton, Littleton, Lunenburg, and Tyngsborough. But Bromfield also “opts up,” playing upper division and nonleague teams as well. And every Bromfield team will play upper division schools this fall. Enrollments have declined throughout the league, Boisvert says, and given the strength of Harvard teams, playing schools of similar size would not be very competitive. “But really, we’ve been doing that all along,” Boisvert added. “We’re still pretty much playing the same teams [we’ve always played.]”

Plans for MIAA end-of-season 2021 fall championships have changed dramatically. The traditional MIAA district playoffs (central, east, and so on) have been discontinued. Instead, the best teams in each MIAA division, regardless of location, will compete in statewide playoffs to determine a division champion. It’s possible, said Boisvert, that boys soccer, for example, could play its first match against a team in western Massachusetts.

Meantime, however, the Central Massachusetts Athletic Directors Association plans to sponsor its own regional championships. Boisvert says that unlike past MIAA district championships, the results of the CMADA tournaments will have no bearing on which teams make it to the state playoffs. Brackets in each MIAA division will be determined by the teams’ overall season records.

Of costs, fees, and deficits

Bromfield’s athletic programs are projected to cost the schools $257,961 this fiscal year, a $20,000 drop from fiscal 2021. Those costs are paid for largely by student fees, which can range between $260 (soccer) to $360 (golf) per sport. Fees are forecast to contribute $207,620 to the fiscal 2022 budget. That leaves a deficit of $50,343, which the schools plan to offset with money from the Devens fund, income the schools get for educating students who live in Devens. Booster clubs and funds from the Harvard Schools Trust provide additional support, such as the trust’s purchase two years ago of new uniforms for the girls lacrosse team. In its fiscal 2022 budget documents, the school administration estimated that eliminating the athletic deficit would require raising athletic fees by approximately $70 per student.

The cost of joining a BA-B rowing program for Bromfield students ranges from $270 (Learn to Row) to $1,350 (novice and varsity rowing). Rowing is not an MIAA sport and BA-B rowing operates as a public school program under the umbrella of the association, a 501(c)(3) educational organization, a longstanding member of the Massachusetts Public School Rowing Association, and a USRowing member organization. Students pay BHRA directly.

Both Boisvert and BA-B director Hatton say finances should not be a barrier to any student’s participation. “Anybody who wants to play [on a Bromfield team] has got to be able to play,” said Boisvert. “Finances will not be a reason for them not to participate.” BA-B rowers can apply for one of two scholarships, says Hatton: Bromfield students may apply for the Peter Ginouves Award (full tuition) while Acton-Boxborough athletes may apply for the Faulkner-Early Award (full tuition). “No BA-B athlete is turned away due to financial constraints,” Hatton wrote to the Press.