Sudbury recreation officials are watching mosquito-borne illness activity closely as fall high school and youth sports preseasons get underway.

SUDBURY -- The Sudbury Park and Recreation Commission, meeting Aug. 17, heard from the department's director on two fronts affecting local athletics: staffing in the recreation department and public health monitoring tied to the start of the fall sports season.

TOWN -- The department has posted a new aquatics manager position, which will oversee the town's two aquatic supervisors and its seasonal lifeguard and aquatics staff. The director told commissioners that several "highly qualified candidates" had already been scheduled for interviews this week, with hopes of introducing a new hire soon.

The director also updated the commission on mosquito-borne illness risk heading into the fall sports season, noting positive West Nile virus samples have been found in neighboring Marlboro and Framingham and that eastern equine encephalitis, known as Triple E, is "starting to take root" locally as well. With school athletes set to be "out in the field pretty much hitting it next week," the director said she has already been in touch with school superintendents and has draft communication templates ready in case restrictions are needed for town athletic user groups.

Commissioner Laurie Eliason recalled that during a prior Triple E season, around 2019, high school football lost its night games and soccer teams lost games played under the lights, along with scrambling to move practices earlier in the day, adding that "everyone who had the earlier practices ended up being a lot better off than those that had the later ones." She asked whether alternatives, such as moving practices indoors to a community center or field house, could be considered rather than cancelling outright if restrictions are needed again.

The director said the department takes a "data driven approach" working with state entomologists and would not move to blanket closures of games or fields "unless it really rose to that level."

Compiled from team and league reports, reader submissions, and local coverage.