No Spring Sports, Yet We Must Carry On
April 8, 2020 at 4:54 p.m.
No Spring Sports, Yet We Must Carry On
By Roger Grossman-
It ended before it ever started.
Just minutes after Gov. Eric Holcomb’s order last week that school buildings stay closed and educating be done remotely for the remainder of the school year, the Indiana High School Athletic Association issued their own statement saying that the spring sports season would never begin.
No starters’ pistols firing.
No umpires barking “PLAY BALL!”
No first serves.
No tee times.
Nothing.
We all totally get it, and neither I nor anyone else has criticized the governor or IHSAA?Commissioner Bobby Cox for those decisions.
However, the cut is still deep and the pain is real.
Factor in rainy and cold weather from the spring of 2019, and you have wiped out about 60% of the spring sporting events over the last two spring sports seasons.
The pain is most excruciating for the seniors, who had one last chance to make their mark at their high school before they graduate. They were hoping for one final opportunity to spend time with their friends before they disperse to college or whatever comes next.
Denied.
For kids who are fighting for college athletic scholarships, this was their moment to put together resumes that would impress someone at the next level enough to offer them money to do it for their college.
For others, their athletic careers came to a sudden and unceremonious halt.
There probably won’t be any awards dinners or senior night banquets. Heck, it’s possible that, given the uncertainty of it all, some of these kids who have been playing sports with each other since they were elementary kids will not cross paths again.
What do we say to these kids? What can we, as adults, offer them as consolation for having the rug that says “Welcome to Spring Sports” yanked out from underneath them and laid across their faces like a white sheet at a crime scene.
We can only offer this: “We’re sorry.”
That is, admittedly, very unsatisfactory, but it’s all we have.
To the underclassmen and younger kids, I hope, somehow, that you, your parents and others will use this time to reflect on sports and its role in your lives.
I hope you now appreciate the entity of sports more. I hope you miss how much time and energy your coaches have invested in you.
I hope that when you are allowed to return to preparation for whatever is next, that you will have a renewed sense of passion and urgency about it.
I hope there is a renewed sense of community and togetherness through sports that we have clearly lost.
I’d really love that.
But right now, all we can do is be Hoosiers who are hunkered down.
We can help neighbors in any way that’s safe and appropriate to, and we can love one another.
Oh, and we can flex our creativity. We can come up with new ways to operate—not by ignoring the governments’ warnings and orders and risking the health and lives of others, but by striving for excellence despite those orders.
Someone will, and we will reward them with a victor’s laurel wreath.
In the meantime, stay safe, follow orders, get outside as much as possible, and pray … often.
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It ended before it ever started.
Just minutes after Gov. Eric Holcomb’s order last week that school buildings stay closed and educating be done remotely for the remainder of the school year, the Indiana High School Athletic Association issued their own statement saying that the spring sports season would never begin.
No starters’ pistols firing.
No umpires barking “PLAY BALL!”
No first serves.
No tee times.
Nothing.
We all totally get it, and neither I nor anyone else has criticized the governor or IHSAA?Commissioner Bobby Cox for those decisions.
However, the cut is still deep and the pain is real.
Factor in rainy and cold weather from the spring of 2019, and you have wiped out about 60% of the spring sporting events over the last two spring sports seasons.
The pain is most excruciating for the seniors, who had one last chance to make their mark at their high school before they graduate. They were hoping for one final opportunity to spend time with their friends before they disperse to college or whatever comes next.
Denied.
For kids who are fighting for college athletic scholarships, this was their moment to put together resumes that would impress someone at the next level enough to offer them money to do it for their college.
For others, their athletic careers came to a sudden and unceremonious halt.
There probably won’t be any awards dinners or senior night banquets. Heck, it’s possible that, given the uncertainty of it all, some of these kids who have been playing sports with each other since they were elementary kids will not cross paths again.
What do we say to these kids? What can we, as adults, offer them as consolation for having the rug that says “Welcome to Spring Sports” yanked out from underneath them and laid across their faces like a white sheet at a crime scene.
We can only offer this: “We’re sorry.”
That is, admittedly, very unsatisfactory, but it’s all we have.
To the underclassmen and younger kids, I hope, somehow, that you, your parents and others will use this time to reflect on sports and its role in your lives.
I hope you now appreciate the entity of sports more. I hope you miss how much time and energy your coaches have invested in you.
I hope that when you are allowed to return to preparation for whatever is next, that you will have a renewed sense of passion and urgency about it.
I hope there is a renewed sense of community and togetherness through sports that we have clearly lost.
I’d really love that.
But right now, all we can do is be Hoosiers who are hunkered down.
We can help neighbors in any way that’s safe and appropriate to, and we can love one another.
Oh, and we can flex our creativity. We can come up with new ways to operate—not by ignoring the governments’ warnings and orders and risking the health and lives of others, but by striving for excellence despite those orders.
Someone will, and we will reward them with a victor’s laurel wreath.
In the meantime, stay safe, follow orders, get outside as much as possible, and pray … often.
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