Due to the recent school shutdown and many students quarantined, student-athletes are unsure of what will happen with winter sports. The shutdown caused hybrid seasons and captains practice to be canceled. Blake hockey goalie Molly Haag ’22 explains, “our team was participating in a bridge season, so they brought the 12 best teams in the state together, and we were scrimmaging. So our team only got to play one game of that.” Additionally, basketball open gyms and boys captains’ practice for hockey were all canceled.
Despite the recent cancellations, some students are hoping for a season. When asked his opinion about having a season, hockey player Ryan Ressemann ’21 said, “I think we should be able to play as long as all of the precautions are taken. I think it will be a good thing to do it.”
Similarly, basketball player Robert Grace ’21 believes, “it’s going to be a lower risk if we have the season during online school. We aren’t going to be seeing a bunch of people at school every day. So, I think we should be allowed to play.”
Other students are more nervous and doubt that the winter season will happen. Basketball player Annabelle Swigert ’22 shares, “I think it depends on what’s going on around the state. So I think if we’re online for a reason, then I think that should probably translate into sports too.” Similarly, Haag shares a similar opinion: “All I care about is everyone being healthy and safe. Of course, I want to play, but if we canít go to school, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to have sports.”
However, not having a season would be particularly devastating for seniors. Grace comments on how disappointed he will be if the season gets canceled: “Not only my senior season, but a lot of the players senior season, and we worked really hard to have this season. Itís going to suck if we are unable to play. We still have goals to accomplish”.
Although students are hoping to play for their final sections games and state games, the unpredictability is shown by football and volleyball coming to a sudden end. Volleyball player, Nikki Stabno ’21 explains, “We were able to play one last game on Friday [Nov. 20] after our quarantine. I was bummed that our last game was without any practices and without half of the team, but it was fun to play. We had a lot of potential this year and could have done better, but I was also kinda expecting this.” Similarly, football player Elijah Short ’21, shares the same disappointment not being able to finish his season: “It obviously hurts that it ended this way but it was for the best considering COVID-19 cases spiking and really now itís just deciding do I want to keep playing these next four years or hang the cleats up.”
