Iowa is the first state in the nation to resume high school athletic seasons amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and as such the school districts in Guthrie County are hoping to have a successful season while abiding by new guidelines for hosting spectators.

Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center, Panorama, and West Central Valley are all part of the West Central Activities Conference, which issued rules for them all to follow, including that a freewill donation will be accepted at the games, concessions will not be offered, and sunflower seeds will be prohibited, as they can lead to an increased risk of spreading COVID-19. West Central Valley Activities Director David Doely mentions another rule they are enforcing, “Spectators should not touch foul balls, anything like that. Normally you’d see a kid will run over and grab it and throw it over a fence or give it to a kid but we’ll only have whatever team is in the field they will be shagging down balls all foul balls and stuff so then we do not have to stop and disinfect the ball and stuff like that.”

Panorama Activities Director Erin Kirtley says she hopes the whole Panther community will be courteous of the new restrictions as Iowa schools are marching into uncharted territory, “I think that there’s going to be a lot of eyes watching even when we think it’s just small-town Iowa. So I would just encourage them to obviously always be on their best behavior, but to really embrace it, to really support our kids to really get behind our coaches. We’ve seen first hand how devastating it can be to have some of these things taken away. We’re really hopeful that we’ll be in a situation where we can move forward, but you just really never know when some of this stuff can come to a halt or be taken away again.”

Spectators are also asked to practice safe social distancing, and to stay home if you show COVID-19 symptoms or have been in contact with someone with a confirmed positive case in the last 14 days.