Let Them Play?

Other than a run at bowling, I have never been athletic.  Part of it was my aversion to getting injured, part of it was my aversion to physical activity in 95 degree heat indexes, and part of it was a complete lack of talent helped by a vision problem not properly diagnosed until I was in my twenties.  Academic team was more my speed.  Torn ACLs are rare and the only thing you risk spraining is your mind.   

While I love professional sports, I’ve never quite understood why high school athletics appeals to anyone who isn’t a parent or a high school student.  Our high school teams were seldom great, and Friday nights you were more likely to find me nerding out at my Commodore 64 playing games or listening to CDs than you were to see me at a football game.  In fact, the only football game I remember attending was homecoming, which was required of all class officers.  (I was Class Treasurer. I hated math and never counted a dime).  While I do look back on my high school days with a certain nostalgia, my desire to revisit my high school days died sometime after my third year on Facebook.   

Another thing I’m less a fan of as I get older is death.  Losing my dad two years ago made it clear to me that “he lived a good long life” is a meaningless phrase when you miss someone every day.   

So in these days of COVID-19, I do not understand our continuous drive to force a return to everything we used to do, when it’s clear that what we used to do isn’t a great way of containing the virus.

But that apparently isn’t going to stop high school athletics.  Today parents, coaches, and students are rallying in Frankfort to let kids play.  And today Kentucky’s largest district will meet to discuss returning to play fall sports.  

This comes just days after the Kentucky High School Athletic Association voted to resume play.  The KHSAA believes that low contact sports like football and soccer can be played safely, and to show their confidence in the safety of bringing kids together, they held their via Zoom.   

We’re all tired of COVID-19.  We all want to get back to normal.  We all want to run free without sweating our faces off in a poorly fit piece of cloth while sanding our skin down to the bone every time we wash our hands.   

But I also am tired of us ignoring the reality.  The older you get, the more likely COVID-19 will kill you.   And as a consequence, many of us have sacrificed things we love and being with the people we love to lessen those odds.  I’ve limited contact with my mom because I still feel the pain of losing my father two years ago and don’t want to inadvertently hurt her.  And I wear a mask, distance, and go out as little as possible so that I don’t inadvertently hurt others.  The fact is, the more we try to “get back to normal” the more we delay our ability to do so.  And we leave a trail of dead along the way.  

But I get it.  Sports are fun. Sports build character.  Sports are a great diversion. My daughter and niece played volleyball.  My dad coached my brother in baseball for years.  It was fun to cheer them and their teammates on.  For many kids, this could be their final year to prove themselves for scholarship opportunities or build college resumes.  It’s important. And maybe it’s not that risky.  As certain politicians always tell us, “kids are much less likely than adults to die of the virus!”  If that isn’t a ringing endorsement of returning to play, I don’t know what is.   

So if we want to risk reopening sports in the next few weeks, as they say in the Hunger Games, “may the odds be forever in our favor.”   Let’s just hope we leave a smaller body count than they did in Panem.