Chaos

I can’t imagine what it would have been like not to watch Clare play softball either her senior year of high school or college.  I do know it would’ve driven my daughter up a wall, and rightfully so.  A sport becomes part of an athlete’s social DNA.  Now, fast-forward to life in the age of COVID-19.

 

The Illinois High School Association has just released guidelines for the upcoming year.  Football and other fall sports are getting moved to spring, softball and baseball to summer.  Among other things, this means that anyone playing football at a Chicago public school will be going two straight autumns without competing, first because of a teachers’ strike and now on account of COVID.  Yikes.

 

Things get even dicier with baseball and softball.  Coaches, parents and players will have to set priorities, which means whether to play varsity or travel or some combination of both.  The more serious the athlete, the harder the decision, trust me.  With football, there is no travel, so everyone will be on board for playing in March.

 

But why would graduating seniors with college commitments want to risk injury in order to play baseball or softball in June?  Why would highly-recruited juniors?  My God, what a mess.  I’m not sure high school sports can handle more than one year of this, and I hope there is no year-two to prove me right or wrong.