Football Game Livestream

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Procedure for Football Games

Good Afternoon Randolph Community,

I wanted to take a moment to share some updates related to attendance at football games this season. Since football games draw the most fans of all our athletic events, we felt it necessary to update the community about our new procedures heading into our first away game against Mount Olive this Friday. The Governor’s executive order #161 from this summer has limited all spectators that may attend an outdoor event like a football game to 500 people. This has obviously created a situation in which difficult decisions will have to be made about who gets to attend these games. Our district will follow different procedures for home and away games; these are described below.

Most importantly, as of today, our fall outdoor student athletes will be able to play! Everything we are doing right now in terms of spectators is to ensure appropriate health guidance is followed so games can continue to be played. It is important for all who read this message to understand that our focus is on ensuring our athletes are safe and that they are able to complete their scheduled games. This is of paramount importance.

Away Football Games

Each site has 500 tickets to allocate for each game as per the executive order. Randolph’s football pod consists of West Morris Central, Morristown, Roxbury, Mount Olive, and Morris Knolls. Athletic directors have agreed that each away team will receive about 100 tickets that they will divide among their coaches and players. Sadly, our wonderful Marching Rams will not be able to travel to away contests. Students are not able to attend away games either. All schools in our pod will be following the same rule. Randolph will allocate their away tickets so each cheerleader and football player will receive one ticket and the few remaining tickets will be allocated for coaching staff. We realize this will be disappointing to many families and we understand this disappointment. However, we only have about 100 tickets to allocate to our student athletes and feel that one ticket for each family is the most equitable solution.

Home Football Games

Since we will be giving 100 or so tickets to each away team, Randolph will have less than 400 tickets for our cheerleaders, marching band, and football team. Each member of these three groups will receive two tickets for each home game. Unfortunately, student sections will not be possible due not only to social distancing needs but also to limited ticket availability. We all eagerly await the time when we can welcome back our amazing students who cheer our football team on every game.

On a personal note, I understand frustration surrounding this issue. I am the parent of a 12 and 10-year-old. My oldest lives and breathes basketball as I once did. He is waiting every day for news about whether he will have a season this winter. Both of my children have had sport seasons cancelled in the spring already. We have lived this disappointment and know it must only be magnified if a student were entering their final year of high school. Therefore, we will do everything in our power to keep our student athletes and band members safe and on the field this fall. This is what matters to us right now. We will monitor state guidance and work with our group athletic directors weekly. If we are able to alter our plans so more participants can attend events, we will do so and inform the community accordingly.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Olsen

Interim Principal

Director of Secondary Education