The Islesboro Central girls basketball team will not travel to Temple Academy in Waterville for a Class D South preliminary tournament game due to a disagreement in mask policy.
Islesboro administrators asked Temple Academy to have its players and coaches wear masks during the game, which was supposed to take place next week. Temple Academy, a private school that does not require student-athletes to wear facemasks for home games, turned down the request.
Islesboro assistant coach Vicki Conover said the Islesboro School Committee informed the team that because Temple Academy wouldn’t mask up, Islesboro wasn’t going to play the game for safety reasons.
The game is the first known example in Maine of a postseason competition being canceled because two schools could not agree on wearing masks, and calls into question whether there should be a statewide policy for high school athletics and facemasks.
Conover feels strongly there should be a mandate that masks be worn statewide.
The assistant coach said virtually every other team on Islesboro’s schedule wore masks and that their team has been very conscientious about it because there was a sizable outbreak of COVID-19 on the island recently.
“Some of our girls even double-masked,” Conover said.
The school contacted the Maine Principals’ Association to see if it would intervene and force Temple Academy to wear masks but the MPA deferred to the schools, according to Conover.
Prior to the start of the 2021-22 basketball season, state agencies tasked with establishing protocols for Maine school athletics strongly recommended that all indoor sports require athletes wear masks but came short of mandating them.
The decision was left up to individual schools. While not every school adopted a mask requirement for athletics, most schools chose to abide by the mask rules for whichever team had the stricter protocol.
Bangor High School athletic director Steven Vanidestine said that has been the standard procedure as the MPA has allowed the schools or leagues to dictate mask policy since there isn’t a state mandate like there was last winter.
“We met as a league (KVAC) and decided to go with the higher standard and mask up for all of our games,” Vanidestine said.
Temple Academy athletic director Carrington Miller said although the team doesn’t wear masks for home games, it does adhere to the mask policy of the respective schools when it is on the road and has worn masks in accordance with the host school’s policy.
There have been other schools that wouldn’t play Temple Academy in Waterville because the players don’t wear masks, Miller said.
“We worked it out. It was just considered a no-contest [rather than a forfeit],” Miller said.
Islesboro and Temple Academy played a regular season game in Waterville on Feb. 1. The Islesboro Central girls wore masks and Temple Academy did not.
Temple Academy won 47-8.
“I feel bad for the girls on our team. I know we aren’t great and have lost miserably but we’re a very young team. We have four eighth graders on the floor. But it would have been nice for them to get to play a playoff game,” Conover said.
Kevin Wood, superintendent at Temple Academy, tested positive for COVID-19 in September. Wood had previously referred to COVID-19 restrictions as “twisted and sick.”
Islesboro Central was the 10th seed and was 0-10 with an average losing margin of 40.5 points per game.
Temple Academy, the seventh seed, is 3-12 and will advance to the tournament quarterfinals.
All athletes will be required to wear masks when they continue to tournament sites in Bangor, Augusta and Portland for the quarterfinals.