Covid and Sports

You just thought that this Covid thing was gone. The most skeptical of us didn’t think that a year later we would still be fighting this thing. I heard a report yesterday that more people had died the day before than the worst day in September. I’m not sure how accurate that is but clearly, Covid is still with us.

It’s wreaking havoc on March Madness. College basketball’s crown event is not nearly the event it has always been. Teams that maybe should have made the tournament didn’t. UT’s inconsistency can, in part, be attributed to the pandemic.

Now they’re in the national championship tournament. And it is anything but business as usual. For one thing, the teams are totally isolated. Can you imagine being cooped up in a hotel room in Indianapolis and the only time you can come out is for practice and games? That’s a nightmare for a college kid.

Already one set of officials have been sent home after one tested positive. It would come as a surprise to no one if one or more teams in the tournament suffered an end to their season for the same reason.

There is no doubt that Covid has had a huge impact on the college basketball regular season as well. Baylor was dominating everyone until not one but two pauses in their season because of Covid. Sometimes it’s the lucky teams that advance.

The high school spring sports season is off to a tenuous start. No one knows what will happen. The abrupt end to last year’s spring sports season is an all too fresh memory.

One of Mark Eldridge’s best teams was denied the opportunity to contend for a state championship.  Same thing for Jeff Sherman’s Heritage softball team. It took great effort to maintain any consistency during the high school basketball seasons. You never knew who was going to be available on any given night.

Baseball and softball teams are already behind because their seasons and summer leagues were both cancelled last year. All the while, teams are working hard to stay safe and Covid-free.

Youth leagues were impacted as well. I haven’t seen any of my grandchildren play sports in quite some time. Parents and siblings could attend games but grandparents could not (until more recently).

Sports as we know them have been changed. Yet, we have this burning desire to return to some sense of normalcy in our sports. That’s why you see conflicts all around the country about Covid safeguards.

Should we open up our games and events? I struggle with that one. I believe that our kids need sports. I believe that with all my heart. But open up without restrictions or precautions? No, not at all.

Are we going to get through this pandemic only to face another? There is a very real possibility of that. So why not just go ahead and open everything up now? Certainly, there is some assumed risk with walking out your front door.

That’s all well and good until it is one of your own family members that becomes infected. Then the game is changed.

We need to do everything we can to defeat Covid today. And then dedicate ourselves to better health practices and to continued research on the best ways to treat this and any other pandemic that comes along.

That means that wear your mask, wash your hands, keep your hands away from your face, and go home if you feel sick.

It means that being physically fit, eating well, and practicing good health habits are more important than ever, because we know that the healthier you are, the more likely you are to beat this and other diseases.

It means that you should get vaccinated. As soon as the vaccination became available, I was there. You should do the same. We need a team effort to defeat this thing.