Commentary: Doing what’s difficult now will help us regain passions in the future

By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com

I get it.

We all want to return to what we look back on as our normal lives.

We want the kids in school.

We want to be finished with masks.

We want our forms of entertainment to return whether that is sports, concerts, theater productions or an evening of socialization.

The athletes among us want to get back in their game or games of choice.

They want it now.

There is, perhaps, a little less sense of urgency for college athletes. The NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to those who missed out on a season in the spring and there is no reason to think that a similar pattern wouldn’t be followed if fall events get canceled for the entire school year.

But to take advantage of that – for some collegians – will mean delaying their life, not entering the workforce yet, not pursuing other opportunities. That’s not exactly a win-win.

For high schoolers, however, each season missed is a lost opportunity. There will be no extension of eligibility. The four-year clock started ticking the day the students entered high school.

The window to participate for their school is a scant and limited amount of time. There is no redshirting for high schoolers. It’s literally now – or for the seniors – never.

I get it.

There is a sense of urgency. Things need to happen. They need to happen now, if not sooner.

For many of us, our hearts go out to these high schoolers. A lot of these teen-agers have put in hours upon hours of work on their own during the pandemic to be ready to compete once restrictions were lifted.

Now that the Illinois High School Association has pushed some traditional fall sports – such as football, volleyball and girls’ soccer – to the spring time, some families have announced plans to move elsewhere, to states that are permitting these sports to be played during the fall.

Some families are even hoping to circumvent the circumstances and return to Illinois in the spring in hopes that their child will get a second season in the same sport during the same school year.

We can debate at another time whether that is an ethical move.

What we are facing today is the here-and-now. As we approach the five-month anniversary of COVID-19 cases being reported in the United States, we – as a country – still have a pandemic with which we are dealing.

From the time I was in junior high school throughout the many decades of my adult work life, I have been associated in some capacity with high school sports.

I love them and what they do for the participants. That is said without regard to the possible scholarships, because those are such a long shot for the majority of all high schoolers.

The sports provide these young athletes with so many life lessons, bring them in contact with so many role models – many of whom they remember years later while working on wedding invitations – and provide encouragement to do well in school or just to remain in school.

I get it.

There’s also something else that I get. The question is not whether we can get through a particular sports season without adding to the COVID-19 casualties.

We have seen it happen during the summer with isolated travel teams in baseball, softball and basketball. Yes, it is possible. Yes, it can work.

But, what is the risk?

Is it worth the possibility of seeing massive outbreaks occur, leading to a more unthinkable number of cases and deaths than we have already witnessed?

At some point, don’t we say – or shouldn’t we say – let’s get this under control and only then try to return to life as we once knew it.

We are in uncharted waters. There is no playbook on how to proceed, which is why we are seeing so many variations from different states and organizations. It’s also why we are seeing decisions being delayed.

We try to hold out hope, to give people – whether it’s fans or the athletes – something to possibly look forward to in the immediate future.

I get it.

It’s what I would like, too.

Just not right now. It’s time to pull the plug. Put athletics at all levels on a hiatus through the end of the calendar year. Focus on doing the things now that will allow us to regain these passions in the future.

It’s not the popular view. I get it. No one wants to be the person or the organization that advocates for a shutdown, yet someone needs to step up and lead the way.

It needs to be a unified effort, not something done on a hit-and-miss basis.

Yes, it will hurt particular people at this moment in time. But how much will it benefit a greater number of people in the long run?

There are more than 166,000 reasons why this is the correct call. That number reflects a still-rising amount of coronavirus deaths nationally – according to what worldometers.info provided on Monday – with projections for thousands more who will perish.

Consider this, on March 23, 2020, there were 466 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the United States. Does it make any sense that the high-alert precautions that led to shutting down schools, restaurants and other activities then would be any less now when we still haven’t gained control of the situation?