A spot to discuss what an individual can do to reduce and mitigate the corona virus exposure risk from soccer related travel.
1. Use Airbnb to book a house for the weekend. Send a note to the owner to please open up windows on opposite sides of the house so there can be cross-ventilation before you arrive. Surfaces inside the house are extremely unlikely to infect you, but you may want to bring clorox wipes for high-touch surfaces, eg bathroom doorknobs, refrigerator handles, etc.
2. The day of your games, ensure that there is a set meeting place for your team and that you map out the route to take for your kids beforehand. If you can print a map of the complex, do that beforehand and mark where the meeting place and the fields are. TDs should be mandating that teams play on the same fields for both of their games-- if this isn't happening, that's a sloppy organization that your club should reevaluate its relationship with.
3. Restroom break before you leave your Airbnb, no questions. Drop off your masked-up kids at the entrance with the complex map and point them at the meeting place, then go park. Encourage them to move quickly through the entryway. Again, the complex should have separate entry and exit points, otherwise the org is sloppy and see above.
4. Under no circumstances should parents go near the team bench. Never ever ever ever. Not to put up an ez-up, not to line up bags nice and neat, not to help out the team manager, never. Team manager should give the cards to the coach and let them take care of all interactions with the ref, scorekeepers, etc. If you need to put up an ez-up, let the coach and a couple of kids take care of this. Do not approach the bench.
5. Families masked and socially distanced evenly over the entire touchline, ten feet back at a minimum. Please sit. I know you parents who pace behind the touchline. Please don't. Stay in one place. Clap like crazy. Bring air horns or other noisemakers. Try not to scream, please. Buy yourself a bluetooth speaker and pipe in some crowd noise, whatever. Don't yell.
6. After the game, please pack up faster than you ever have -- there are always families who want to linger around on the touchline. Don't be that family. Let your coach and kids break down the ez-up and team bench and have the team manager collect it. You may be tempted to leave your stuff for your afternoon game-- don't do that either. Leave the complex and go to your local deli or whatever. If you're within distance of your Airbnb, that will be an infinitely better choice. You may be tempted to have the typical between-game team and parent hangout. Please don't do this right now. Get your food to go and have a picnic out of your car.
7. Make sure you are constantly reminding your kids that these aren't real games. These are only to keep them halfway sharp. It means nothing if they get blown out, or if they blow out another team. Your coach will be telling them the same thing. They're smart kids, they'll get it.
I love you brother and fellow American