Dear School Board members,

The Plymouth Whitemarsh Girls Soccer Team, respectively submits the following letter in support of our petition to play soccer this season.

We believe it is in the best interests of both the players and the community to play soccer. First, soccer, is an outdoor sport, and therefore, much less likely to have an outbreak. In fact, there are only 22 players in total on the field at a time, which adheres to the suggestion from the County Health Report. Additionally, the County recommends no more than 250 people congregated at an outdoor venue, and fortunately, in this case, girls soccer gets far fewer fans than that. See the attached link: https://www.montcopa.org/DocumentCenter/View/28624/Sports-Guidance.

Having a soccer season will help alleviate anxiety among students who have dealt with an enormous amount of uncertainty during this time. It will also help the incoming freshmen transition from middle school to high school especially given that we’re all virtual this year.

Furthermore, both the team and coaching staff are willing to collaborate with you to devise a safe and responsible way to execute a season.

It should be noted that over the past two months our team has conducted workouts with up to 33 players in attendance. We’ve worn masks, limited our contact with each other and have been as safe as possible. In addition, over the past few months, there have been countless indoor AAU Basketball tournaments safely and successfully conducted in our area.

We as players with the support of our parents have all considered the risks and feel that we deserve a chance to play. In closing, the benefits of having a soccer season, with appropriate safety precautions in place, far outweigh the risks.

Respectively submitted,

The 2020-2021 PW Girls Soccer Team