By ALEX SPONSELLER After a successful winter sports season, local middle schools are nearing the end of their third season along with high schools.

Middle school sports that are being played include boys and girls soccer as well as cross country. Teams will be wrapping up their seasons this week.

“Things have gone well, we’ve seen improvements and have been able to play most games between our four (schools),” said Cranston Middle School Athletic Director Justin Erickson.

Although there have been a few restrictions in play including roster and spectator limits, Cranston schools have explored and implemented new ways of broadcasting their local middle school sports and athletes.

“One thing that we did differently this season was having our teams play at the high school fields, similar to the way we had our basketball teams play in the high school gyms. We weren’t sure what the spectator rule was going to be, but this allows kids to play under the lights and for us to stream the games,” said Erickson.

As the third season wraps up this week, RIPCOA is getting prepared to hold its final season in the spring. This season will feature baseball, softball and outdoor track.

Competition is expected to begin on May 3 and run through the middle of June. Teams are expected to play nine games without a postseason tournament. One sport that will be out of action for the remainder of the school year will be wrestling. The three sports that will be competing this spring will continue to abide by the typical COVID protocols including mask wearing, social distancing and roster limits.

Erickson is excited to welcome these sports back and is focused on keeping the athletes safe moving forward.

“It’s huge for both of our high schools as well as our middle schools, across the board,” said Erickson. “There will continue to be roster limitations, masks will still need to be worn, kids won’t be able to use the dugouts. We want to be as safe as possible before we put our kids on the field.”