Take a good, hard listen … hear that? There are no basketballs bouncing in gyms, no trapping drills are happening on the soccer pitches – only the sound of the summer breeze is heard in the grass on high school football practice fields. It’s “Moratorium Week.” “What’s that” you ask? It’s the one week of the 52 on the annual Indiana High School Athletic Association calendar that kids are told to take a time out. There are no team camps, no summer leagues, no open gyms and no 7-on-7 games with other schools. Every year, the IHSAA takes the week that includes Independence Day and declares it off limits to organized school-related activities. Seven days of wonderful, sports-free peace that allows both athletes and coaches to be the other stuff they are supposed to be. You know, like dads, husbands, siblings and teenagers. Oh, let’s be clear – the runners are still running, the shooters are still shooting and the linemen are still lifting this week. At least the ones on winning teams are. But coaches and players are separated by a virtual curtain that is thrown across the space between them with the sound of the “zing” as it flies past their faces. And it stands there for one week. I have written about this before. I have warned you readers, the coaches and the governing body of high school sports in the Hoosier State that one week is not enough. I have shown you the ramifications of the crush of the extra work kids are putting in these days in the near-extinction of the three-sport athlete and the dwindling numbers of two-sport athletes in our schools. The state of decompression that occurs over this week shows itself in several ways, like the hamburgers from the grill taste better because they can eat them on a plate with chips and potato salad and not in their right hand while they are driving to open gym with their left (or worse, warming them up when they get home after open gym is over). They actually get to ride with their family on the pontoon as they cruise around the lake ... instead of just seeing the pictures their mom posts on Facebook. They get to hang out with their best friends. There is, of course, the argument that kids are getting more and more entitled and therefore more and more lazy – and there is a lot of truth to that. There is also this push to make school a more year-round venture to try to help kids retain the knowledge they gained during the school year. I get that too. But 30 years ago when I was in school, if you wanted to play sports you just played sports because it was great and that’s what you wanted to do. That isn’t true anymore, and kids today have a different choice – walking away from it. That isn’t a good option and I think it teaches kids that quitting is a viable option, but it’s happening everywhere all of the time. Kids can now take it or leave it, which puts coaches in the worst possible position. If they don’t coddle a 16-year-old kid who just doesn’t seem to be happy with the way things are going, they will either quit playing or move. That’s pretty tough. It’s why I thank God every day he made me a broadcaster and not a coach. Enjoy the sound of silence. Revel in the joy of the plop of a fishing lure hitting the water. Eat an extra brat with lots of onions and mustard. Savor Moratorium Week … because Monday’s coming.
