CCSD had announced that they will be cancelling fall sports for the 2020-2021 school year after saying it would resume in February. 

This means no more wearing my cross country gear to school on meet day, running to random locations with my team to play tag, getting that adrenaline rush when I hear the gun go off signaling me to start running, and no more bus rides back to the school and talking to my teammates about how we feel we did. One of the most important and significant high school experiences has been stripped away from me and many other student athletes as well. 

I had been training for my cross country season since the beginning of quarantine in March. So to hear that fall sports are now cancelled, not only do I feel like all my training was in vain, but I lost the opportunity to see how much I have improved.  Though it has been confirmed that club sports are still in session and an option for student athletes, I am not able to participate in club sports because not only would I put myself and family at risk of getting COVID, but there are no club teams that are near me that I could practice with. My sports season is as good as over. 

This entire situation could have been avoided from the beginning, if only people had taken this virus seriously and stayed home. People were still going out, not following the rules and social distancing, all because it was “boring” for them to stay home all day. And now because of the irresponsible actions of others, us students athletes have to pay the price.

What is it going to take for people to understand how serious this is?! By not abiding by the rules set in place by authorities, they are aiding in keeping students out of schools and learning the way they should be, and taking the full high school experience away from us. One of the most important parts of high school is being apart of a sports team which becomes like a second family, all while creating an option for yourself to attend college for sports. 

So instead of college scouts going to high school basketball games, or track meets to see which athletes would make excellent additions to their teams, student athletes are now tasked with reaching out to colleges themselves. This is a huge disadvantage, especially for people who are aiming high and wanting to do sports at Division One colleges; it will be much harder to get noticed with a sea of athletes in a similar boat trying to go to the same school. It would prove to be even more difficult to stand out and get the chance to advocate for yourself as to why you deserve to do sports at their school, especially with the lack of information from these two years. 

But not all schools cancelled their sports; some of them have the ability to invite scouts to watch their athletes perform in their sport which in turn, gives them a significant better chance at getting into college, especially Division One. Scouts would be able to talk one-on-one with those student athletes while the ones who have their seasons cancelled won’t get that recruitment experience. The athletes who still have a season and have the opportunity to make up for the sudden cancellation of sports last year are sure to be prioritized over the ones who have to rely on sending in tapes of their highlights. While seeing an athlete in person in real time do an outstanding job would seem to be more impressive than picking and choosing only the good bits of your high school sports career and sending that in. 

We are all in this together, and the actions and choices people make affect us all. I had to miss out on the second most important year behind senior year for sports, and I as well as many other student athletes are going to have to work even harder next year, assuming we will be back at school in person, to make sure that we do not fall behind.