A Long Way From Fall Sports
April 21, 2020 at 4:54 p.m.
A Long Way From Fall Sports
By Mark Howe-
And after reading Kyle Neddenriep’s article in Monday’s Indianapolis Star, we all need to take a closer look at the priority we place on high school sports.
Before I go any further, understand just how aware I am of where my bread is buttered. Three esteemed colleagues who cover the sporting exploits of many of the same schools we do here at the Times-Union have been furloughed. I am fortunate to be able to work from home, as most sports reporters place high value on time with family. I like to think I’m taking advantage of the situation, but like most households there is such a thing as too much togetherness. We’d all like to return to our social circles, and I’d like to see the people with whom I work with and compete with for your newspaper dollars.
Neddenriep’s piece on Monday tells the story of the 4A boys basketball sectional at Lawrence Central High School, arguably the most competitive such tournament in the state. Their March 6 semifinals and the championship game each drew a capacity crowd of 2,800. That was about the time the virus news first reach Indiana, and workers such as ticket takers wore disposable gloves and sanitized surfaces. The gym was cleaned thoroughly after each night.
Ultimately, five people who attended that sectional died from COVID-19, including South Central Athletic Director Paul Loggan. Many others who attended the sectional eventually contracted the virus and were sick to various degrees, from being uncomfortable to needing life-saving medical attention.
There is no way to know for sure if any or all of those people were exposed at Lawrence Central. Two members of a coaching staff went to dinner after the semifinals; one died from and the other had the virus.
We’ve learned more in a shorter amount of time about this one virus than we have any other medical condition that I can think of in my lifetime, at least here in America.
There’s a lot of things that have to go right before that first tee shot is hit to mark the beginning of girls golf and, in turn, the fall sports season. And there is time to figure out how we’re going to reset society to what will likely be a new normal for all of us on the plant.
The balance between economic and health concerns has to be found. Those decisions will need to be made at the lowest level of government possible, as each situation is different, but intertwined. We need to figure out how to get people back to work and still protect health. Short of a cure or a vaccine, that’s going to take some doing, and a lot of people are going to have to work together.
Likewise with our schools; we need to figure out a way to get them open and running safely again. Frankly, if the schools have to resort to e-learning to start the school year in the fall, there isn’t any justification to begin practice. Coaches are, for the most part, teachers as well, and I have a feeling teachers aren’t yet so comfortable with e-learning as to declare it equally as effective as classroom time.
Clearly, this isn’t just about how things are going in Kosciusko County. Warsaw and Wawasee competing in the Northern Lakes Conference, where starting this fall half of the schools in the conference are in Elkhart County and a fifth, new member Mishawaka, is in St. Joseph County, where cases number in the hundreds. The corridor between the Elkhart-Lagrange County line and Chicago has five counties with triple-digit cases, except Lake County which will likely have 1,200-plus cases by the time you read this column.
The other six schools covered by the Times-Union compete in largely rural areas, but the question of safety cannot be taken for granted for even a minute.
I have zero doubt the IHSAA officials will make every effort to restart sports as soon as possible. But really, this is out of their hands. The cancelled the boys basketball tournament only after the state shut things down.
I understand the odds of contracting the virus are somewhat slim. Like the lottery, there are varying degrees of “prizes,” and I can’t imagine gathering people together to compete in or in support of high school athletics with the stakes so high.
I’ve wait my whole life to have kids on a field on a Friday night, and with one in pads and one in the band, I’m more excited than ever for fall to roll around.
We as a society have a lot of work to do to get there, and if more seasons have to be sacrificed, that will suck but so be it.
The absence of sports won’t equate to the loss of life lessons. In fact, maybe there’s other life lessons to be had as never before. I am steadfast in my belief America will be stronger than ever once we’ve conquered this situation.
We, as a collective society and without regard to beliefs of faith or politics, have to get this right the first time. Our kids are counting on us.
Because we all want the show to go on.
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And after reading Kyle Neddenriep’s article in Monday’s Indianapolis Star, we all need to take a closer look at the priority we place on high school sports.
Before I go any further, understand just how aware I am of where my bread is buttered. Three esteemed colleagues who cover the sporting exploits of many of the same schools we do here at the Times-Union have been furloughed. I am fortunate to be able to work from home, as most sports reporters place high value on time with family. I like to think I’m taking advantage of the situation, but like most households there is such a thing as too much togetherness. We’d all like to return to our social circles, and I’d like to see the people with whom I work with and compete with for your newspaper dollars.
Neddenriep’s piece on Monday tells the story of the 4A boys basketball sectional at Lawrence Central High School, arguably the most competitive such tournament in the state. Their March 6 semifinals and the championship game each drew a capacity crowd of 2,800. That was about the time the virus news first reach Indiana, and workers such as ticket takers wore disposable gloves and sanitized surfaces. The gym was cleaned thoroughly after each night.
Ultimately, five people who attended that sectional died from COVID-19, including South Central Athletic Director Paul Loggan. Many others who attended the sectional eventually contracted the virus and were sick to various degrees, from being uncomfortable to needing life-saving medical attention.
There is no way to know for sure if any or all of those people were exposed at Lawrence Central. Two members of a coaching staff went to dinner after the semifinals; one died from and the other had the virus.
We’ve learned more in a shorter amount of time about this one virus than we have any other medical condition that I can think of in my lifetime, at least here in America.
There’s a lot of things that have to go right before that first tee shot is hit to mark the beginning of girls golf and, in turn, the fall sports season. And there is time to figure out how we’re going to reset society to what will likely be a new normal for all of us on the plant.
The balance between economic and health concerns has to be found. Those decisions will need to be made at the lowest level of government possible, as each situation is different, but intertwined. We need to figure out how to get people back to work and still protect health. Short of a cure or a vaccine, that’s going to take some doing, and a lot of people are going to have to work together.
Likewise with our schools; we need to figure out a way to get them open and running safely again. Frankly, if the schools have to resort to e-learning to start the school year in the fall, there isn’t any justification to begin practice. Coaches are, for the most part, teachers as well, and I have a feeling teachers aren’t yet so comfortable with e-learning as to declare it equally as effective as classroom time.
Clearly, this isn’t just about how things are going in Kosciusko County. Warsaw and Wawasee competing in the Northern Lakes Conference, where starting this fall half of the schools in the conference are in Elkhart County and a fifth, new member Mishawaka, is in St. Joseph County, where cases number in the hundreds. The corridor between the Elkhart-Lagrange County line and Chicago has five counties with triple-digit cases, except Lake County which will likely have 1,200-plus cases by the time you read this column.
The other six schools covered by the Times-Union compete in largely rural areas, but the question of safety cannot be taken for granted for even a minute.
I have zero doubt the IHSAA officials will make every effort to restart sports as soon as possible. But really, this is out of their hands. The cancelled the boys basketball tournament only after the state shut things down.
I understand the odds of contracting the virus are somewhat slim. Like the lottery, there are varying degrees of “prizes,” and I can’t imagine gathering people together to compete in or in support of high school athletics with the stakes so high.
I’ve wait my whole life to have kids on a field on a Friday night, and with one in pads and one in the band, I’m more excited than ever for fall to roll around.
We as a society have a lot of work to do to get there, and if more seasons have to be sacrificed, that will suck but so be it.
The absence of sports won’t equate to the loss of life lessons. In fact, maybe there’s other life lessons to be had as never before. I am steadfast in my belief America will be stronger than ever once we’ve conquered this situation.
We, as a collective society and without regard to beliefs of faith or politics, have to get this right the first time. Our kids are counting on us.
Because we all want the show to go on.
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