HS?Sports Are Here, Sorta
August 19, 2020 at 2:52 a.m.
HS?Sports Are Here, Sorta
By Roger Grossman-
High school sports teams have started their season, generally. Football players have yet to play their first game, but pretty much everyone else has.
But, as we expected, there are hiccups.
Maconaquah Schools have told their kids to stay home and learn remotely after one family came down with COVID-19—three of them are students at the high school, another is a student at the middle school and their mom works in the cafeteria.
They will be away from the building and there are no athletics until after the 27th.
A Winamac student has tested positive for COVID-19. Today they announced that all sports are cancelled for the week.
We know that the schools in Elkhart County took the long ride on the really high, really fast roller coaster over the last two weeks. The health department up there went from “kids need to be in school” on Monday to “everyone go home and stay home” on Thursday to “Well, ok, just take the rest of the week with no practices” a day later. The athletic directors and patrons of their schools banded together to basically beg for a chance to prove that they could have school in person and play sports and not make things worse.
They got their chance.
So, now what?
Well that’s the thing. We don’t know! We can’t know. So much of what has happened since that second week of March has taken our breath away by the California brush fire-like-speed by which things change.
One student, one family — everything changes.
Every school corporation is different and every corporation has a different approach to the current situation, just like you all have different approaches to wearing a mask or how close you stand to someone or whether you hug someone or not.
And this week has been a little tougher as people reach out to me and declare with great certainty that “there is no reason we should be playing sports right now”.
I promised you a few weeks back that I would not take a side on this issue, and I am sticking to that. It is hard enough for school administrators to make decisions like they have to without knuckleheads like me telling them they are crazy for (insert the decision you think they got totally wrong).
But the decision has been made, and the kids and coaches have been working to get as ready as they can be. Now is not the time to debate whether or not there should be high school sports or not.
We’re in it.
So if you think that kids playing sports right now is wrong or crazy or inappropriate, you are still entitled to that opinion. That games are being played might be outrageous to you—I understand.
But there will be high school games this fall. If you are one of the people who are opposed to that fact, I have a simple, humble request: please just be silent for a while and let’s see what happens.
I am not asking you to change how you feel. Heck, I am not even saying that you are wrong.
But the decision to play at the high school level has been made, and my job is to cover it every day. And I will do that as best I can with the zeal and vigor that you have become accustomed to, and I know that my brethren at other media outlets are going to do the same.
For now, anyway.
Friday, Lord willing, I will don the headset to begin my 30th sports season at the radio stations in Warsaw.
It promises to be one unlike any other.
I shouldn’t have to say it, but I will: cherish it. Bask in every free kick, every kill, every first down…because this fall sports season is fragile, and it could all come crashing down from the high shelf on which it sits in an instant.
High school sports teams have started their season, generally. Football players have yet to play their first game, but pretty much everyone else has.
But, as we expected, there are hiccups.
Maconaquah Schools have told their kids to stay home and learn remotely after one family came down with COVID-19—three of them are students at the high school, another is a student at the middle school and their mom works in the cafeteria.
They will be away from the building and there are no athletics until after the 27th.
A Winamac student has tested positive for COVID-19. Today they announced that all sports are cancelled for the week.
We know that the schools in Elkhart County took the long ride on the really high, really fast roller coaster over the last two weeks. The health department up there went from “kids need to be in school” on Monday to “everyone go home and stay home” on Thursday to “Well, ok, just take the rest of the week with no practices” a day later. The athletic directors and patrons of their schools banded together to basically beg for a chance to prove that they could have school in person and play sports and not make things worse.
They got their chance.
So, now what?
Well that’s the thing. We don’t know! We can’t know. So much of what has happened since that second week of March has taken our breath away by the California brush fire-like-speed by which things change.
One student, one family — everything changes.
Every school corporation is different and every corporation has a different approach to the current situation, just like you all have different approaches to wearing a mask or how close you stand to someone or whether you hug someone or not.
And this week has been a little tougher as people reach out to me and declare with great certainty that “there is no reason we should be playing sports right now”.
I promised you a few weeks back that I would not take a side on this issue, and I am sticking to that. It is hard enough for school administrators to make decisions like they have to without knuckleheads like me telling them they are crazy for (insert the decision you think they got totally wrong).
But the decision has been made, and the kids and coaches have been working to get as ready as they can be. Now is not the time to debate whether or not there should be high school sports or not.
We’re in it.
So if you think that kids playing sports right now is wrong or crazy or inappropriate, you are still entitled to that opinion. That games are being played might be outrageous to you—I understand.
But there will be high school games this fall. If you are one of the people who are opposed to that fact, I have a simple, humble request: please just be silent for a while and let’s see what happens.
I am not asking you to change how you feel. Heck, I am not even saying that you are wrong.
But the decision to play at the high school level has been made, and my job is to cover it every day. And I will do that as best I can with the zeal and vigor that you have become accustomed to, and I know that my brethren at other media outlets are going to do the same.
For now, anyway.
Friday, Lord willing, I will don the headset to begin my 30th sports season at the radio stations in Warsaw.
It promises to be one unlike any other.
I shouldn’t have to say it, but I will: cherish it. Bask in every free kick, every kill, every first down…because this fall sports season is fragile, and it could all come crashing down from the high shelf on which it sits in an instant.
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