I want to take a few minutes to update everyone on where we are with the scheduling process for our 2020 CNR Summer Basketball League as well along with the COVID-19 details as far as the league is concerned.
Scheduling Process Update- We are 95% done with the schedule. We anticipate releasing the schedule to everyone by Tuesday evening. As a result of teams getting back to us indicating they are able to play on Sat/Sun as well as the occasional 4:40 pm start, when all is said and done, we are going to be able to give most teams the amount of games they requested.
Locations we are using- As we have previously mentioned in earlier emails, if you are expecting what I consider a “convenient CNR Location schedule” with games just minutes away from your house, that won’t be the case this summer. The vast majority of games are at Center St. Louis, Gametime Sports, Barat Academy, St. Mary’s, and the St. Louis Basketball Academy (Shriners). We are fortunate to have these facilities- along with a few others- for this summer as the public schools we typically get are unavailable for use. Therefore, with our lack of West County space, the St. Charles vs. South County matchup that would have typically been played somewhere in West County- that game is most likely going to Center St. Louis or Gametime.
COVID-19 update- COVID-19 has obviously had a significant impact on everything that we all do- including in the world of CNR Basketball. For the past month or so, Scott and I have been doing our research in how to make our league as realistically safe as possible. Whether it’s gathering information from the various schools or governmental agencies, reading the recommendations and guidelines from the medical experts, or going to local baseball or basketball tournaments to observe what is taking place, we are trying to determine what the best practices are that we can apply to our games. The toughest thing we have to decipher are the different guidelines for different locations. If the league started tomorrow, we could have games in St. Charles County but not sure if we could have games in St. Louis County. The stark reality is we have facilities in three different jurisdictions and each one has their own guidelines. Call it whatever you reason you want but it’s the reality of the situation. Fortunately, our league starts on July 13th so we are still over two weeks away- and it seems things change on a daily basis.
We’ll obviously continue to monitor the developments in St. Louis County- and when it’s time for the league to start, if we are unable to play in St. Louis County, those games just won’t take place. It could be a case where we are able to start in St. Louis County on July 13th, or not until July 27th, or maybe not all. Your guess is as good as mine. However, to put it simply, the locations where we are able to have games take place, those games will happen. If there are locations where games can’t take place, they’ll simply be deleted from your schedule. This is the main reason why we will tell you to hold off on any payment until the league starts and you know how many games you’ll be playing. If you want to guarantee you play your max games then you would need to be able to play any weekend day mainly in St. Charles.
Each team needs to make their own decision on what is best for them. The same is true for each parent deciding what is best for their own kid. This will be a similar message you’ll most likely hear from your respective school district. Many schools will give you two options. #1- Go back to school full-time with all of the kids- as the schools will do their best to social distance when possible- but knowing there are obviously limitations on how much you can social distance in a school. #2- Stay at home and take the classes virtually.
I say all of that because it’s a similar situation with CNR Basketball. We are taking steps that we hope can allow social-distancing to take place as much as realistically possible. We are scheduling games further apart to allow for a group of teams to leave the building before the incoming group enters. We have a one parent per player spectator policy to guarantee proper social distancing in each facility. Some facilities are obviously easier than others to manage. We hired extra help at each facility to make the experience as safe as possible. We will have various sanitizing measures taking place. We will have all the sanitation and our league policies up on our website by July 7th. However, there’s only so much you can do. Therefore- if your team isn’t comfortable with playing in the summer league, just email us and we’ll remove you from the league. But if you are no longer playing you need to tell us by this weekend as we are about done scheduling.
Thanks for all your patience with this summer from the delay to the start of the league to the constant changes taking place. We hope and plan to start on July 13th. As things change we will certainly update you of these changes by e-mail and our Twitter.