Basketball, a demanding sport, requires players to run, dribble, jump, and now keep their mouths covered for the season. The Colorado High School Athletics Association has stated that if a player takes off their masks even briefly, their teams will be disqualified from the given game.

Players find it difficult to play at full speed with face coverings.

“I feel as if I am inhaling my mask while my lungs search for oxygen,” Freshman Regis Jesuit basketball player, Phoebe Rogala, explains.

Although CHSAA stands firm on their policies, the refs struggle with implementing them strictly. Often, players are seen removing their masks temporarily to catch their breath. Occasionally, refs are also seen doing this, but are never penalized or scolded.

Dr. Scott Braunstein, the medical director of Sollis Health L.A. expresses the importance of wearing masks, “I think athletes going back to sports without masks seems very irresponsible right now,” Braunstein argues. 

This decision stands in contrast to professional sports, which use their resources to do mass testing and create quarantine bubbles.

Some players at the professional level believe wearing a mask impedes on maintaining the highest level of play possible.

JJ Watt, a professional football player acknowledges his distaste for them, “I had it on for about three periods of practice and I said, ‘Take this sucker off, I’m gonna die out here.’ …” Watt said

Other professional athletes, such as the Yankees Clint Fraziers, see it as a small inconvenience in order to keep others safe.“I think that it’s an easy task to do. I’m just trying to overall make sure that I can do the best part that I can and make sure that our team does stay healthy.”

While many have complained, returning Regis Jesuit sophomore basketball player Evan Harlan simply views these rules as another part of the game to master,“I see no difference because I’ve learned to adapt. I guess I’m just built different”