REGION — Telstar athletes got a small dose of sports this fall, but the story has not been the same for them this winter.

At the end of November, the School Board voted 7-6 to not to move forward with traditional winter athletics, instead choosing to have several different intramural activities as options for athletes. Just days later, however, Oxford County moved from a green to yellow classification, meaning all activities, intramural or not, were on pause.

Positive COVID-19 cases have also shutdown SAD 44 schools multiple times, including a two-week hiatus in late January. As the end of February approaches, the school is just now starting up intramural sports.

Senior Davin Mason expressed some of the many frustrations he’s had with decisions the school has made.

“We see schools around us playing basketball, but our school won’t allow it because of the fear that we could go to a game and bring back a virus with a 98% recovery rate. When even if we have a possible case in a different building than the high school we get shut down for three days.

“What does this force us to do? Play for other programs. Programs with more kids, in bigger towns, and this is supposed to be a safer alternative?” he said. “People who don’t even send their children to Telstar are making decisions for me and my classmates, making decisions on how our lives will play out without even consulting us.

“When we get out of school, and would typically head to practice, what are we supposed to do? How can you expect teenagers to just sit around and do nothing? There needs to be something in our lives to serve as a security blanket to keep us out of trouble, and it’s not an intramural sports program,” Mason said.

Senior Brooklyn Kimball echoed Mason’s thoughts on the decision making.

“I was very disappointed to hear that our school board was not allowing winter sports. Our school board seems to always be about the kids, which is great, but recently it has not felt that way,” Kimball said.

Kimball is a three-sport athlete and missed out on a final season of basketball this winter. Mason was fortunate enough to have the chance and play for an Oxford Hills team this year.

“I couldn’t be more grateful for a system that cares about its students and what sports mean to them,” Mason said.

Telstar Principal Mark Kenney said he understands why students are upset and thinks they have every right to be, but unfortunately noted that the time frame was too short to try and get the school back into interscholastic play.

“Our kids would not have been eligible to play until this week and it’s the last week of the regular season for winter sports,” Kenney said.  “By the time students got all their necessary practicing and conditioning in there would not have been enough time left.”

Kenney said he checked in with the Mountain Valley Conference about possibly seeing if Telstar could compete against other MVC schools, but Telstar had not been included in any of the MVC schedules. The only way Telstar could’ve participated would’ve been if schools either wanted to make up games or had space in their schedules for additional games. Referees would have to have been available, too, according to Kenney. He mentioned that finding transportation to and from games was another issue they were having at the time, which further complicated things. The school board would also have had to hold a emergency meeting to try and change its original vote.

Superintendent Dave Murphy said that if the school had moved forward with a traditional athletic season, it only would’ve occurred at the high school level, whereas intramurals provided something both for middle and high schoolers.

Nonetheless, it still stings for the athletes missing out their sports.

“Playing a sport means a lot to me and it’s been the best memories all through high school playing on the court/field,” Kimball said. “I definitely don’t look forward to school as much knowing I don’t have that team to be with at the end of the day. I feel like playing sports has given me a purpose at school and without that, it feels very strange. Seeing other schools in the area playing sports is very frustrating. I am very hurt that my other senior friends get to have that ‘last game’.”

Kimball said she appreciated the school’s effort on trying to incorporate intramural sports into the winter season, but said the experience is simply not the same as being part of a team.

“I’m really hoping since softball is outside, the school board will allow that to happen.”

The board plans to discuss spring sports at its meeting in March. Kenney said the Maine Principals Association is expecting spring sports to start on time, with pitchers and catchers reporting on March 22.

“Right now it looks like spring sports could be possible,” Kenney said.