CYO COVID Guidelines 2021-22
The Catholic Youth Organization is actively monitoring the CDC and county decisions on COVID requirements/restrictions and moving forward with winter athletics at this time. Restrictions can change daily. It is extremely important for you to monitor and follow protocols for your area for practicing, including verifying with your pastor on the individual parish decisions on a regular basis. It's also important to verify any restrictions in jurisdictions and venues that you will play games at each week. A list of venues can be found in the left hand column of this page.

The CYO is proceeding with staying compliant with these governmental regulations, the County Health Department requirements and avoiding issuing internal mandates that add more restrictions then already required by the jurisdictions.  However, in order to stay as consistent as possible across jurisdictions, we do offer reasonable and manageable best practices listed below. 

For the best clarity, we have addressed the following most common areas of COVID restriction concerns.

Proof of Vaccination 

• The CYO is not currently requiring vaccination or proof of vaccinations for individuals for events held on parish property.  Note that this differs from the vaccine mandate in D.C. for school-based extracurricular athletics. 

Reporting

• Teams should report to parents and the CYO office when known posstive COVID results have been reported to them. This must be done with confidence so that an individual is not specifically identified. The CYO Office will then notify other teams that were recently played of the reports also in confidence to not identify individuals.  

Masks (for jurisdictions where masking is required) as of 12/6/21 all games held in PG county and MC county require masks indoors.

• All individuals over the age of 2 years old, regardless of vaccination status, must be masked at all times inside the gymnasium.  
• Players, regardless of vaccination status, are required to wear a mask at all times unless they feel wearing a mask imposes a health risk while actively participating in the game.
• Players on the bench must be masked, but a reasonable amount of time is allowed to mask when a player has just returned from active play and needs to catch their breath.
• Cloth masks should be cleaned between practices and games.

• At this time, the CYO as a general rule is not limiting spectators. It's important to check venues as some are or will likely limit spectators due to the building and spectator area size.
• The CYO asks that families self-limit themselves to 1 or 2 spectators per player in order to help avoid more restrictive mandates by venues and jurisdictions. 

• All individuals are asked to self-maintain appropriate distance from one another where possible.
• Coaches and players are to avoid close gathered huddles as much as possible.
• Team bench players should spread out approximately a chair width or more where possible while on the bench.  

 PERSONAL BEST PRACTICES

• Regularly wash hands with soap and water to remove germs and limit contamination of shared equipment. If there is no access to soap and water, hand sanitizer should be used to eliminate germs. 
  • No postgame handshakes.
  • Bring your own ball for practice.
  • Bring your own water bottle and do not share bottles. No team water coolers. Provide sealed individual plastic bottles of water for players that do not bring their own.
  • Assign players their own pennie (practice shirt) that they will take home and bring to games and practices after cleaning. Provide spares when absolutely necessary.
  • Provide at least two pairs of goalie gloves and encourage regular goalies to bring their own pair.
• Take your temperature before coming to a game or practice. Know and watch for the symptoms of Covid-19: 
  • Fever (100.4°F/38°C or higher) or chills, persistent cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue muscle or body aches, persistent headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea.
• Stay home if you or someone in your household:
  • Has a fever (100.4°F/38°C or higher) or feel sick.
  • Is waiting on Covid-19 test results.
  • Has been in close contact with someone who is positive or suspected positive for Covid-19.