March 13, 2020, was a normal day. We had a gap between the basketball tournament season and softball season. If you asked athletes on March 13 if we would have a shortened season, or maybe no season at all due to the Coronavirus outbreak, we would call you crazy. When the spring seasons got cancelled Spring 2020, it was devastating, but we had hopes for the fall. Then, in September of 2020, football and volleyball as they were normally played were both cancelled. Football was allowed to play 7v7, but volleyball was only allowed to practice outdoors. And now, the winter season is pushed back with a start TBA.
For many athletes and fans, this uncertainty impacted them tremendously.
To see how much impact this has truly had, I asked high school athletes and a fan the question, "How has the pandemic impacted your athletic experience?" Here were some of their responses.
From Dylan Coombs, Senior at Lawrence High School, "It took away my final year and the senior experience. It also took away the most important year for me when trying to play in college." Dylan is a three-sport athlete and is looking to play college football.
John Davis, Sophomore at Nokomis has seen a better side to it. "Not very much, I've been going out of state for baseball. I have to wear a mask more than I would like, but other than that it hasn't affected me very much unlike other sports getting cancelled."
Robbie Dorman, Senior at Dexter, is a football and basketball player, and he has been hit pretty hard by the shutdown. Big into football, especially being the last year, Dorman felt as if he didn't get the experience even though they participated in 7v7 touch football.
Sophomore Madden White, who plays two sports at Nokomis, said, "It has stopped me from playing football and doing the things I want to do as consistently as I want to."
Camryn King, Sophomore , is a three-sport varsity athlete at Nokomis. She thought it was a much slower process than it should've been. Aside from it being a tough start, she was able to meet new people through community leagues.
Mr. Middleswart teaches at Nokomis, but also has 3 children that are athletes as well. "All 3 of them, actually, decided individually to not play rec sports but instead to do more practice and playing at home, kind of like creating a little family team to play. It worked out ok, but as you can imagine, it wasn't even close to the full team experience they usually get. They missed the competition of real games, and the interaction with teammates." Not only is the pandemic affecting high school athletes, but even younger ones are impacted from getting the full experience. "That's a really hard thing for me to realize as a parent, a former soccer coach, and an athlete who loved soccer more than anything."
Logan Martin is a Senior at Dover-Foxcroft who has struggled with the athletic impact, but more so with his mental health and losing his football season. He is also looking to play college football, but the recruiting process has been affected as well.
Lexi Mittelstadt, a Freshman basketball player at the University of Maine, said, "I have to wear a mask for every practice and it's hard for me because I have asthma, so it's definitely affected my ability to breathe." Along with the masks in practice, she is also required to take three Covid-19 tests a week.
Central's Freshman Izzy Allen said, "It's been a struggle to get into gyms. Now my parents have to pay money to get into any gym when I used to just go into any gym. All of the games I have had have been shortened, and it's sort of gotten be out of shape."
Sarah Talon, Junior at Windham High School said, "this pandemic has affected my athletics by having to wear a mask almost 100% of the time. Also not having my parents be able to go and watch is disappointing. we didn't get to play many teams in soccer, no playoffs either"
Grady Hartsgrove, Sophomore quarterback at Nokomis, was upset with the fact football got cancelled, but other contact sports were still being played. Nokomis did not take part in 7v7.
Freshman in Indiana, Chloe Spreen, is the top basketball player in her grade. She spoke with me about seeing the better side to it all. "It has given me time to focus on my game, and work harder than ever."
MCI's Quarterback, senior Ryan Friend, is another player that is hoping to extend his career in football and play in college, but the recruiting process didn't affect him where he already had plans. He was able to focus on lifting through the pandemic.
The pandemic has affected athletes, fans, and coaches tremendously. We are all impacted in some shape or form. If it takes a mask and no fans at our athletic events, we will do it.
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