By FRED KRONER
Matt Hensley’s day time work week the past few days didn’t look all that different from years past.
The Mahomet-Seymour High School athletic director has been finalizing sports schedules for the 2021-22 school year, a task that is generally completed about a year in advance.
“I’ve been polishing our boys’ basketball schedule for next year,” Hensley said. “There’s some normalcy there.
“These are the types of things I’d be doing. The majority of the schedules for next fall are done and where they need to be.”
Except for the first two months of this calendar year, the COVID-19 pandemic has stripped away traditions and a tried-and-true way of doing things. Few things are being done or happening as they have previously.
For Hensley – and other ADs throughout the state – there is an irony to the advance work that is currently being completed. At this point, nothing has yet been finalized for basketball for the current 2020-21 school year.
There could be more clarity when the IHSA Board of Directors meet on Monday (Dec. 14) or – more likely – the holding pattern will continue.
In any case, filling dates and scheduling contracts for games that are at least 12 months away, Hensley said, has been “a welcome reprieve.”
The limited amount of high school sporting events since March – only cross-country, golf, girls’ tennis and girls’ swimming this fall – have made life “a little more peaceful,” Hensley acknowledged.
He doesn’t have to concern himself with opponents who can’t field a junior varsity team, officials who cancel a contract or a bus order that somehow was overlooked.
And yet, for Hensley, that doesn’t necessarily make things better.
“There are some good things, but some not-so-good things,” Hensley said. “Not seeing your kids participate in any extra-curriculars pales in comparison to what they would have been doing.”
Hensley, the administrator, can relate to the frustrations of parents seeing their children idled and inactive. He’s one of those parents, too.
“My kids are missing an important part of what they do on a day-to-day basis,” Hensley said. “My oldest is a cheerleader and it will be great to see her back out there.
“My youngest is in drama, art club and yearbook. It will be good when they can return to those things.”
Like many other families, the Hensleys are taking advantage of the opportunities that are currently available.
“With the new-found freedom, there has been a lot of family time and a lot of game nights,” Hensley said. “Being at a family dinner every night is a positive. They won’t last forever.”
Emma Hensley is a junior. Anna Hensley is in eighth-grade.
It’s not just Matt Hensley’s schedule which has opened up at night.
“They have been able to be there more, too,” he said. “They’re both involved in extra-curriculars.
“We’ve had the same challenges as other families, getting people where they need to be when they need to be there. Now those (times) are not as frequent.”
As the moratorium on high school sports has continued, the Hensleys have made some adjustments at home.
“There are not as many game nights, but certainly as many family dinners,” Matt Hensley said, “and we sit and talk about what everybody’s day was like.”
The recent Thanksgiving holiday was unlike any other that Hensley has experienced in the last quarter of a century.
“For the first time in 25 years, there was not a basketball tournament over Thanksgiving,” Hensley said. “My Thanksgiving turned into Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“It was a nice change of pace.”
When the workload intensifies, as will inevitably happen at some point in 2021, his children will know what to expect.
“The kids have grown up with it,” Hensley said. “That’s part of what we do.
“It will be crazy, but we will try to be prepared so we can hit the ground running.”
As the coronavirus has evolved, so have the unofficial duties of Hensley and other athletic directors.
“Those of us in the profession have become one another’s support networks,” he said. “This has changed those relationships.
“I’ve talked to a couple who have said they are struggling. It has been the time to get to know one another as people. They have challenges they are facing every day.”
Hensley speculates that there could be more changes on the horizon once the pandemic has subsided.
“I’m guessing some things won’t come back,” he said. “One of the things could be the idea of what a traditional school day looks like.
“There are some practices we have done on a daily basis that have worked, but now we have changed things and can say, ‘This works pretty good, too.’”
Hensley is also preparing for his final meeting of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association as a member of the Board of Directors.
The gathering will take place virtually, starting on Friday (Dec. 11) and concluding Monday (Dec. 14).
“It was supposed to be in Tampa with Tony Dungy as the keynote speaker,” Hensley said. “It’ll be different.
“I won’t be somewhere else worrying about what is going on back here. I’ll be here, but there won’t be anything going on here.”
One aspect which hasn’t changed during the pandemic, Hensley said, is the work ethic he is seeing from the M-S coaches.
“I’m really, really pleased with what our coaches and teachers have done to keep our kids engaged,” Hensley said. “The times they’ve been able to meet, I’ve seen our kids getting bigger, faster and stronger.
“I’ve seen coaches build relationships with these kids.”
Bulldog football head coach Jon Adkins said one part of his job remains the same.
“For me personally, I would say the grind never stops,” Adkins said. “If it ever stopped, I don’t know what I would do with myself.
“That being said, the grind now is more about recruiting and contacts via emails and Zoom sessions with college coaches; clinic-ing with other head coaches on a daily basis about a variety of topics; helping a few other out-of-state teams with scouting during their playoff runs and still staying engaged with my own players via weightroom and Hudl communication.
“The grind never stops. It just looks different.”
Like Hensley, Adkins is appreciative of the additional time at home.
“It has been nice to be able to enjoy some time with my family that I don’t usually get to do during the season and off-season,” Adkins said. “It has been really nice to make dinner on most nights – I’m sure my wife appreciates that – and help out with other things around the house that I don’t usually get to participate in.
“Overall, the extra time that I have gotten to spend with my kids because of this pandemic is something that I can’t take for granted because I will probably never get this much time with them during another fall.”
