PELLA—Mindful of the need to promote health and safety, Central College will largely prohibit spectator attendance at winter sports athletics events, with limited exceptions.
           
However, fans can still follow the action and support the Dutch as live video streams of all home Central athletics events this winter can be accessed through the college's athletics website at athletics.central.edu  or directly at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/central/. Due to the attendance restrictions, for this season only, the college will also offer a video stream of home junior varsity men's and women's basketball games.
           
For home men's and women's basketball games in P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium, athletics director Eric Van Kley said he is hopeful that each student-athlete will be permitted to provide passes for two immediate family members—or four passes for a split family.

No students, staff or fans will be allowed to attend other than event management personnel. Masks will be required for everyone except the participating student-athletes on the floor and social distancing measures will be enforced.
           
Because of seating limitations in H.S. Kuyper Fieldhouse, no spectators will be permitted for Central's home men's and women's indoor track and field competitions.
           
The lone scheduled home appearance for the Central wrestling team, a Jan. 30 triangular with Nebraska Wesleyan University and the University of Dubuque, will also be staged in Kuyper Fieldhouse. Van Kley anticipates that, at most, 20-25 spectators will be allowed, but no decision will be made until later this month.
           
Van Kley emphasized that attendance policies are subject to change at any point and that the competition schedules remain tentative as well.
           
"Our goal is to provide competition opportunities which are beneficial to the overall well-being of our student-athletes," he said. "We will do so only if we can do it safely and we will take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that. This requires we all maintain maximum flexibility in our approach."
           
Winter sports action is tentatively slated to begin Jan. 23.