OBA Families,

I hope this message finds you doing well and staying healthy.  Please take a minute to read through the details below for important updates to our season.  We continue to adjust and adapt with the expectation that we will return to play yet this season.

A recap of where we are at today:

• All youth sports in MN continue to be paused until at least 12/18 by order of the governor
• The expectation is that the governor will have additional updates by the end of this week or early next week that could address the pause on youth sports.  We will update you when that happens.
• Owatonna public schools remain in distance learning mode through January 7th.  This means facilities remain unavailable to OBA until that period is over.
• The Minnesota State High School League has approved various return to play plans for high school winter sports.  If the governor's orders are NOT extended, winter sports could start practice as early as 12/21.  If the shutdown is extended, the start date will be either January 4th or January 18th.  While youth sports are not governed by the MSHSL, they are influential in helping us return to play.
• We are currently working with Minnesota Youth Athletic Services and organizations like ours across the state to establish safe and consistent return to play standards that will be implemented across all member organizations when we are approved to return to practice and games. The health and safety of our players and coaches remains our top priority.

An update on activities moving forward:

• If we are able to return to play on 12/18, but do not have access to public school gym space, we are planning to find gym time for each team until school gyms are available to us.  Gym time would be limited during this time but we know kids are excited to get back in the gym!
• Our tournament schedule is consistently being adjusted as the circumstances around us change.  As tournaments are cancelled, we are looking for replacement tournaments where it makes sense.  We don't anticipate tournament play starting before the weekend of 1/16 (pending state guidance).  The team pages on our OBA website will be updated as changes are made to tournament schedules.
• Unfortunately, we had to cancel both our home tournaments in January.  The girls tournament was scheduled for Jan 9/10 and the boys tournament for Jan 23/24.  We know how important our home tournament is for both our players and families and are looking into the possibility of rescheduling at a later date.  More info to come.
• While we are paused, we are encouraging players to remain as active as possible and work on their skills until practices resume.  Coaches will be reaching out to teams in the coming days to schedule a 1x per week virtual team meeting/workout.  Should be a fun way for teammates to connect and do some learning /skill development.  Please keep an eye out for those 'virtual practices' and help ensure your player can participate.

Last but not least:

• Heggies pickup will be Friday, December 18th.  Details on pickup instructions will be sent soon!  Due to COVID we will be having scheduled pick up times, have orders pre packaged and facilitate the ability to pay without needing to leave your car.
• We continue to evaluate registration rates and refunds based on a shortened season.  We expect the next couple weeks to provide a lot of needed info to finalize what that will look like.  Registration checks have not been cashed and will be held until our season resumes.

Thank you for your support of OBA but more importantly your support and encouragement to your son or daughter while we wait for the season to begin.

On behalf of the entire OBA Board -

Matt Ginskey