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New AIA Guidelines Include Flexibility For Vaccinated Student Athletes

The Arizona Interscholastic Association has released  new guidancefor student athletes just in time for the new school year. The biggest difference from the new guidelines and those from last school year is greater flexibility for student athletes who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Those athletes can return to sport-related activities quickly after a COVID exposure as long as they have no symptoms. 

This should solve issues that teams experienced last year when any player had to be quarantined after being exposed to COVID-19, which led to some schools losing or canceling games.

AIA executive director David Hines knows of some teams where all players have already gotten their shots. 

“They went through a year of canceling contests, and they didn’t want to put themselves in that position again so they made the choice to do that," he said. 

The AIA won’t be requiring COVID vaccines or proof of vaccination. But Hines hopes the new flexible guidance will encourage schools who decided to opt out of sports last school year to participate this year. 

Rocio Hernandez was a senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2020 to 2022.