Opinion: Please Wear Your Mask at Baseball Practice

Little+League+players+standing+in+line+before+a+game.

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Little League players standing in line before a game.

COVID-19 is not just a problem in school. The virus has affected sports, too! Baseball practices are uncomfortable for kids who want to stay safe. Some kids don’t wear their masks correctly. Some don’t even bother to wear them. That is okay if you’re like six or four feet apart. It’s not okay if you’re one foot apart.

Sometimes, kids don’t wear their masks when they are one foot apart. Others then just hold their breath for as long as they can when they are close to these people. Now, even coaches say that you can keep your mask off when you’re a foot apart.

One coach said, “We don’t need to bring our masks here, we’re outside!”

Covid spreads, fast. If we can’t stop not wearing our masks then we are going to need to stop practices if that’s the case.

There was basically no ventilation in the room so each time I went close to one of them I would hold my breath for as long as I could.

Once, there was a team on an inside field. There were about twenty of them and I was in there with them. I had my mask on and was having a private practice with one of my other coaches. I wasn’t on the team. They weren’t wearing their masks at all. There was basically no ventilation in the room so each time I went close to one of them I would hold my breath for as long as I could.

Later, next time I came to the private practice my coach said that they had tested positive for Covid-19. I took a COVID test and tested negative. I was safe.

A lot of the time at my practices I would tell my teammates to put their masks on. There are about five of them who don’t like to. Whenever someone asks them they say “okay” and put the masks on. But later, like in a minute, I look at them and I see their faces. They aren’t wearing their masks.

Even worse than that, some kids hug each other and high five each other when they don’t have their masks on. When we are in a dugout they don’t wear their masks. Some just don’t wear them. Others just don’t wear them correctly.