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Swine flu causes one giant headache for prep athletes

Tribune file photo by BILL WARD

Freedom High senior Trent Wiseman is the state's No. 2-ranked boys pole vaulter.

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 5, 2009

Updated: 05/05/2009 07:00 am

TAMPA - I try to be a reasonable person.

I generally believe people in our community mean well and that those in charge take their responsibilities seriously. They usually have good reasons for making decisions, even unpopular ones.

But I'm just not seeing it this time.

As things stand now, 11 track and field athletes from Freedom High School could miss Friday's state 3A meet in Winter Park because there's a chance – no one can say how large – they were possibly, potentially, perhaps exposed to the swine flu bug.

Maybe.

It's really a giant game of CYA between health officials and the county school system and, as usual, the athletes are caught in the middle.

The kids from Freedom who worked their tails off to get here are crushed.

Coaches are furious.

Parents are confused.

The school system is in damage control.

The health department is following procedure.

Everybody is just doing their job.

But everybody is so afraid of doing something wrong, they're afraid to do what's right. The school system seems to want a 100 percent guarantee that no one from Freedom has the bug, will ever get the bug or will ever pass the bug along.

By that standard, they might as well shut down athletics throughout the country.

Check them out

Freedom High School is not the only place in the state where swine flu exposure is suspected. There have been suspicious cases around Orlando, for instance – not far from Winter Park, site of the state track meet Freedom would like to attend.

By the standard employed here, can the Florida High School Athletic Association guarantee that no one attending the meet will get sick? Of course it can't. So if it's too risky for Freedom, it's too risky for anyone. Except that next week there would be somebody else who might have been exposed to the bug, and it would never end. Fear like this doesn't go away, and that's the worst virus of all.

Late Monday afternoon, I asked Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio for her thoughts about the kids from Freedom. The mayor has been part of the swine flu briefings with the health department here, so her comments seemed relevant even though she stressed it was just her opinion.

"They probably ought to take those 11 kids to a doctor, check them out, see if they don't have any symptoms," she said. "I'd tell them to stay home, not go the mall, check them out again Friday, and if they're still OK, they ought to be good to go.

"It's not like we're dealing with a hundred kids. It seems like you can isolate a group like that effectively."

Then she said something else.

"There is often a common sense solution to these things," she said. "It's not my jurisdiction, but they should be able to work this out."

Silly idea

Here's hoping someone can come up with a better way to "work this out" than the utterly lame FHSAA gambit of having a separate makeup meet a week later for any athlete caught up in this thing.

The story was on the FHSAA Web site Monday.

I read it once.

I read it twice.

A separate meet for the Typhoid Tracksters.

That's about as silly as closing Freedom High this week and then telling students not to congregate in places like the mall or movie theaters – or, I guess, track meets.

I swear, I wonder if these people have a clue sometimes.

The FHSAA came up with this because it can't order Hillsborough Superintendent Mary Ellen Elia to let the athletes participate. She apparently won't give in without an ironclad guarantee from the health department that all is well. The county can't give that guarantee.

So here we are, stuck.

There is a lot of chatter behind the scenes to try and reach a compromise that will let the kids compete, and I wish I could be more optimistic.

Everybody is playing this by the book, and kids could get hosed because there is no chapter on what to do when your gut is telling you to let them play even though the rules say something else. Somebody ought to write one, though.

Quickly.

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