Nampa School Board approves athletic competition plan

Nik Streng | 12/16/2020

After practicing without games for a month, student-athletes in the Nampa School District can return to competition as early as Thursday.

Nampa trustees voted Wednesday to allow the district’s high school sports teams to compete again. The motion passed with a 4-1 vote.

While student athletes have been unable to play any games, sports schedules for Nampa schools are still intact. Columbia High School’s boys and girls basketball teams are scheduled to host Weiser Thursday night. Nampa High School’s basketball teams are scheduled to host Homedale at the same time.

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Fans aren’t allowed to attend sporting events in the district as long as the state remains in Stage 2 of the Idaho Rebounds reopening plan. Part of Wednesday’s discussion circled around watching the games, which will be available on the NFHS Network.

Nampa, like other metro-area districts, will be in distance learning through at least Jan. 13. Wednesday’s decision comes just two days after trustees in the Boise School District approved a return for athletics. Unlike Nampa, Boise student-athletes have not been practicing.

Other discussion at Wednesday’s meeting revolved around responses to a survey of 312 winter athletes in the district. Parents and coaches were also surveyed.

Trustees expressed concerns over 4% of dance and cheer participants who said their coach doesn’t implement COVID-19 precautions, and 8% who said precautions were in place only “sometimes.” Five percent of girls basketball players and 6% of wrestlers answered “sometimes” to this same question.

Administrators at Wednesday’s meeting told the board they will go over the district’s COVID-19 protocols with coaches again.

Trustees discussed other data points on high school sports Wednesday:

Out of 770 Nampa athletes, 34 tested positive for COVID-19.
Schools reported 131 total quarantine incidents among athletes.
Athletes were more likely to test positive for COVID-19 or have to quarantine than the rest of the student body, with 4.42% of athletes receiving a positive test (the total student body was 2.98%).