Gov. Lamont Responds Publicly to Letter From 10-Year-Old Athlete

CONNECTICUT — In the wake of an executive order halting club and team sports in Connecticut until mid-January due to the coronavirus pandemic, the office of Gov. Ned Lamont has received numerous messages, both pro and con. On Sunday night, the governor posted a 68-second video on his Twitter page, responding directly to a letter from a 10-year-old youth hockey player.

The complete message from Lamont was:

"I don't get to respond to all the nice letters I receive with lots of advice, but here's one I wanted to respond to. It says 'open up youth sports. If we can wear masks and play hockey and be safe, we can go to school wearing a mask and be safe.' From Max McCulloch, a 10-year-old kid.

"First of all Max, thank you for the orange puck; I've never gotten an orange puck before. I was a 10-year-old hockey player, pretty prophetic I think. You've got to understand something. We're finding ... we've postponed the start of winter sports, including hockey. I'm sorry about that, but we've had a lot of infections in or at winter sports, in particular hockey. Boston had hundreds of infections, not on the ice but people on their way to the rink, in the locker room, lots of infections. The Yale hockey team, 19 infections, and we want to do everything we can to keep your school open so you can go to school safely.

"I really am sorry about the inconvenience; I know what it would have meant to me as a kid, but I want to tell you, you're going to be playing hockey in January if we're really careful right now. Thanks for the puck."

At the time of the postponement decree, issued Nov. 19 and effective last Monday, Lamont said there were 29 coronavirus outbreaks linked to school sport activities and 235 teachers had to quarantine due to close contact with a sports team member. The sports ban is being done to keep schools open for as long as possible, he said.

The edict on club and team sports is in effect until Jan. 19, 2021. That same date is also the first day of practice for scholastic winter sports, as decided by the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Board of Control on Nov. 17.

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