Practice for high school basketball teams started up last week all over Connecticut except in Bridgeport.

Athletes from Bassick, Central and Harding High Schools visited City Hall Monday to request a meeting with Superintendent Michael Testani about why sports can't resume.

"We just wanted to voice our opinion of how we feel our season's being taken away from us and we think it's really unfair, " says senior Isaiah Sullivan.

The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference announced earlier this month that girls and boys basketball, boys ice hockey, girls gymnastics, and boys swimming could return for a 12-game season.

Testani says Bridgeport schools won't be participating in 2021 winter basketball because indoor sports in poorly ventilated gymnasiums invite too much COVID-19 risk.

"If I make the decision to allow our kids to get on the court, I assume the liability that goes with it," says Testani. "And not only for those kids, but for the family members or the folks they come in contact with if they do contract coronavirus and bring it home."

MORE: Bridgeport schools won't participate in certain sports, despite CIAC decision

Athletes say it isn't fair when their friends in neighboring towns get to play.

"Everybody I know is still having a season, just not Bridgeport schools," senior Shawn Allen. "And that's the thing that's aggravating us."

Testani says he feels their pain but he's not budging.

"I'm not willing to sacrifice the life of a child over a 10- or 12-game basketball season," says Testani.

Testani says extracurricular activities can't be a priority when 8,000 students are still on full remote learning.

The athletes say for them sports are more than an extracurricular activity.

CIAC is not holding a spring season for wrestling, cheerleading or competitive dance. Those activities are considered high risk.