It’s become a familiar sight at high school basketball games. Athletes are wearing their masks below their noses or on their chins as they play.

High school athletes in Connecticut are required to wear masks at all times: at practice, on the bench and during competition. The only exceptions are what the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference states are for safety purposes. Wrestlers, swimmers, gymnasts and throwers and jumpers in indoor track and field do not have to wear masks when they are competing but must wear them before and after competition.

The mask rule was set to expire Dec. 23 for vaccinated athletes, but the Connecticut Department of Health mandated that it stay in place due to the recent COVID-19 surge.

Athletic directors said last week that sometimes it can be difficult to enforce mask policy, especially on the basketball court.

“I did notice at our first game some kids were wearing them below their nose. I said to the coaches, ‘Hey, they need to get those masks up,’” Bloomfield athletic director Tammy Schondelmayer said last week. “It’s hard to police. The minute you start running, it slips. We’ve been resending the message.

“[CIAC officials] talked about it on [a call to athletic directors on Dec. 21], if the kids are violating the policy, just stopping the game and making the kids pull them up. If they fall down again, stop the game again; they can pull them up again.”

On Dec. 16, the day after the start of boys basketball competition, CIAC executive director Glenn Lungarini sent a letter to athletic directors, pointing out the lack of enforcement of the mask policy.

“While many of you continue to emphasize the importance of strict adherence, we are concerned that the loose adherence of some to current mask requirements and, in some instances, the conspicuous failure to comply with current COVID-19 rules and regulations that were witnessed during the opening night of boys’ basketball, the winter sports season is not on course for a similar level of success [as the fall season],” Lungarini wrote in the email.

Jason Siegal, the athletic director for Conard and Hall high schools in West Hartford, echoed Schondelmayer’s concerns about enforcing the mask policy.

“It’s a challenge,” he said. “It really is. We do the best we can. We remind kids constantly, constantly. It’s also a challenge with a handful of spectators, game in and game out.

“Take basketball, the way the game is played, you bump into one another and kids are so focused on playing defense, it falls down and it’s hard to remember to pull it back up. During breaks, our coaches are doing their best to remind them, ‘Keep it up.’”

In Cheshire, athletic director Steve Trifone said being the “mask police” has become “almost a full-time job” at some athletic events.

“I really want take my hat off to my coaches who are really pushing our kids to keep it on,” he said last week. “We address it when visiting teams come. We say, ‘Hey, we’re really going to enforce our mask rule.’ Our trainer enforces our mask rule. It’s just another added burden into the contest. We’re trying to keep everybody safe, but it’s another thing we have to do. We have no problem yelling during the game, ‘Hey, pull that mask up.’

“Our parents have been pretty good about it. We have some parents who are defiant, and we have to deal with that, but for the most part our parents have been pretty good.”

E.O. Smith athletic director Dan Uriano said last week that part of the problem stemmed from the fact that some athletes, such as wrestlers, didn’t have to wear masks during competition, while basketball players did.

“From a facility management perspective, it would have been much easier to be consistent and fair if there was a vaccination requirement for all athletes,” he said. “Because the inconsistencies are exacerbating problems that existed already.”

Lori Riley can be reached at lriley@courant.com.