Hope for 2020 sports seasons still flickering

There is a flicker of light at the end of this sports-free tunnel we call 2020.

The big news in Sanders County last week was the fact that the Montana High school Association announced that Plains High School will be moved back up to Class B for the 2021-2022 school year.

Although Class B for all other sports, Plains will be allowed to remain in 8-Man football, much as Thompson Falls, a B school, also plays 8-Man.

Of big news in Montana last week, there was a rather inconsequential American Legion baseball game in Helena but it was like the World Series to Montanans as it was the first organized sporting event in the state this year since COVID-19 shut down all organized sports way back in March.

As if it really matters, Helena won that game.

What really matters, is that there were over 300 sports-starved fans in attendance. It is assumed that officials made a plan for maintaining social distancing at the game with numbers well over the Montana government’s recommended limit of 50 for crowd size.

Although outdoor sports have an obvious advantage in regard to holding competitions, the real test for sports in Montana in the 2020-2021 school year will probably be when we return to indoor sports in the fall.

What form those competitions will take (will crowds be limited for instance?) is very much up in the air and dependent on what happens this summer in the way of testing, available treatments and/or a possible vaccine for COVID-19.