NASA Adopts New Covid Precautions

NASA Families,

North Austin Soccer Alliance is committed to providing soccer to the children in our community this Fall 2021 season. However, we must be mindful of the heightened level of risk at Stage 5 in our area right now. This will require us to temporarily strengthen our protocols to protect our players and begin the soccer season safely.

Currently, Austin and Travis County are at Stage 5 of their Covid-19 Risk-Based Guidelines. This is a very dangerous stage, wherein almost all Intensive Care Unit beds in local hospitals are full. (For an explanation of these stages, click here.)

North Austin Soccer Alliance is committed to providing soccer to the children in our community during the Fall 2021 season. However, we must be mindful of the dangerous situation we are currently in.

Therefore, on August 13, the North Austin Soccer Alliance established policies in response to this situation that will allow us to enjoy the sport we love safely. The policy is thus:

NASA players must wear masks at stage 4 and 5 unless they are fully vaccinated. At stage 3, we will re-evaluate our policies. Likewise, if Austin Independent School District suspends extracurricular activities then we will re-evaluate our policies.

This should be interpreted that with these temporary precautions, teams can return to scrimmaging and playing games with other clubs following recommended guidelines.

We will continue to stay in contact with local health authorities and constantly reevaluate what is best for player safety.

In conjunction with NASA's full Return to Play Safety Action Plan, these temporary precautions will allow our NASA teams to return to a normal season, including scrimmaging and playing games with other clubs' teams following league and club recommended guidelines. Previous mitigating protocols remain in place by league mandate, such as: not attending when sick, social distancing on sidelines, increased hygiene and disinfecting routines, as well as coaches and spectators wearing masks in accordance with South Texas Youth Soccer Association (STYSA), the governing soccer organization for South Texas.