COVID-19 Safety
Elemisha Volleyball takes COVID-19 safety very seriously, and as of April 2021, Alameda County is in the Orange Tier and Outdoor Volleyball is classified as an outdoor moderate-contact sport. That said, we realize that California is not yet out of the woods with respect to infection rates. To continue the favorable downward trend in infection rates, we feel strongly that every organization must do its part to help stem the spread of the disease. In addition to making sure that we adhere to Alameda County and California state guidelines, we also maximize safety by paying careful attention to the guidelines set forth by the CDC.
Toward that end, we will pay careful attention to the following items for our Summer 2021 program:
Health/temperature screening
Parental - Before taking them to an event, parents must screen their own athlete for signs and symptoms of possible illness. All individuals should measure their body temperature to ensure that no fever is present prior to participating or attending every team activity. Anyone with symptoms of fever, cough or worsening respiratory symptoms, or any known exposure to COVID-19 should not attend any sports activity until cleared by a medical professional.
Event - Upon arrival, all players and coaches will be screened for symptoms and have their temperature scanned and recorded. Any participant or coach that exhibits any viral symptoms OR has a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher will not be allowed to participate in the event. We are happy to refund any event charges if your youth athlete is turned away. Furthermore, any participant with a temperature of between 100.2 and 100.3 will be held for five minutes, then given a second scan and also a blood oximetry reading. Based on the results of the second scan and oximetry SpO2 reading, we may still ask said participant to leave the event for that week.
Proximity time
By nature, outdoor volleyball game play (as opposed to football, hockey, wrestling, and basketball) is quite close to zero contact, and it has very little physical proximity (it is typically played with 2-3 players per team each covering 900 sq feet of court), and the occasional player proximity is for very short bursts if at all. Some rough math based on how the sport is played indicates that, during game time with 2-3 players per team, the maximum any player will be exposed to close proximity to their teammate would be about 4.5% of the overall time of play, or 10.8 minutes maximum over a 4 hour duration. This time is quite specifically brief, outdoor, NON-CONTIGUOUS time spent. The CDC bases its risk guidelines on the idea that indoor exposure to someone known to be infected should not exceed 15 minutes within 24 hours. That said, we ARE modifying our drill structure to make sure that, during drills, we do not have “stack-up” of players while waiting for their turn in line. The entire event is aimed at maintaining a 6 foot spacing between players for as high a percentage of the time as possible.
We will be restructuring our water breaks by breaking them up into smaller groups to reduce crowding around the cooler/food area.
Notification
If we become aware of a confirmed case of COVID 19 with one of our participants or coaches, all parents will be notified.
Face covering and physical distancing
Face coverings to be worn by all participants during practice and competition, even during heavy exertion.
Face coverings to be worn by coaches, support staff, and observers at all times and in compliance with the CDPH Guidance for the Use of Face Coverings.
No sharing of drink bottles and personal items.
Observers/spectators must maintain at least 6 feet from non-household members.
All coaches expected to disseminate advice/feedback/guidance from social distance.
Hygiene
We will provide multiple hand sanitizer stations at the field and will take regular breaks during which we will have players use said sanitizer.
We will also be disinfecting balls on a regular basis, just as a precaution.
We discourage ANY physical contact with other players, including any sort of proximate celebrations, handshakes, high fives, etc.
Policy flexibility
We understand that the pandemic landscape is dynamic and may change over the course of the summer, in either direction. Thus, there is some chance that we may modify our regulations to suit the updated risk assessment. This could include changes as severe as cancellation of our events (in which case we would refund all charges) or as mild as changing up our drill structure or play guidelines to enhance safety.