Montgomery County parents, student-athletes push for fall sports with rally while county continues to hold off
ROCKVILLE, Md. (FOX 5 DC) - Even with Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan giving the green light to kids to be able to play fall sports again, Montgomery County is continuing to hold off.
That decision so far is upsetting some parents and their kids who are athletes.
That’s why on Tuesday some families gathered to rally at the county executive building in Rockville.
READ MORE: Maryland high school sports can return in October, state says
The group was heard chanting “start fall sports,” and “let us play” which has bounced off from the “Let them Play” rallies seen happening across the DMV as parents and students within various school districts advocate to bring back fall sports.
Many of them are football players counting on scholarships but they say that have nothing to show to talent scouts because they aren’t playing and are barely practicing.
“It sucks because by the time we even have a season this year all of our applications would be in and everyone would have chosen where to go,” said Gary Winthrop a senior at Walter Johnson High School.
“I didn’t play much last year and this was where I was going to show everyone what I had.”
READ MORE: Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association confirms 2021 start
“There’s no reason why parents cannot allow this to happen,” said one parent, “we need these kids to be able to play and it’s just not fair for these kids who have worked so hard.”
FOX 5’s Ayesha Khan also spoke with Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management & Homeland Security Director, Dr. Earl Stoddard. He said
that while youth sports are also important and something they are considering, their conversations with MCPS have been principally focused on protecting student, teacher, and staff health in the educational environment.
The other challenge he said is attempting to develop a strategy for building utilization.
“When you do the planning you do the planning around all the spaces and all the activities surrounding youth sport,” said Stoddard.
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“It’s one thing to play the sport but an entirely different thing to do the in school activities related to the game around training and around locker rooms so if you’re going to go down the road of doing sports you need to make sure all those spaces are planned out.”
The county is planning to meet next week where the topic is scheduled to come up for discussion.