Just so the kids could play
Nobody wanted a fall sports season like the one we just finished. Of course, we all wanted full seasons without canceled and postponed games. We all wanted a season with fans and with state tournaments. I feel for those parents who could not see full seasons of their kids competing, especially those parents with seniors. I feel for all the kids who worked hard all their lives to compete at the high school level and didn’t get the full experience – especially for the seniors – most of who will not get the chance to compete in their sport again. Although the 2020 fall sports season was one we don’t want to repeat, there was one thing that I thought was refreshing, and I hope it continues – in some fashion – post COVID19.
Medically, I will not debate how safe or unsafe – COVID-wise – the fall season was. There were valid arguments for more sports and valid arguments against any sports. Like it or not, the kids played.
2020 was not about who is the best team and who should be ranked where and who should be seeded. 2020 was about one focus – how can we get the kids to play?
Testing was done across the state and games were cancelled. Many kids lost opportunities to play that they will never get back.
They lost those games just so other kids could play.
Nearly every week, contests were re-scheduled or canceled, usually without much warning for the teams and administrators. I am sure the amount of time athletic directors must have been working the phones or banging out emails trying to find an opponent was unprecedented. Making sure they had facilities available, buses available, dates available, and officials to referee the games had to be a weekly battle no athletic directors had ever had to deal with on this scale. Adding to that, later in the season, they had to coordinate with people in the community – often volunteers – to make sure their fields were playable due to the weather.
They put in the extra time just so the kids could play.
While Friday night lights were still the standard, across the state, there were football fields hosting games under the lights and sometimes under the natural light of the afternoon on nearly every date on the calendar not named Sunday. Programs were getting their facilities prepped and opened – not just for their games but for other schools who couldn’t use their fields due to schedules, weather, or both.
They did it just so the kids, and not just their kids, could play.
Coaches put in long hours during normal seasons. They watch film, they prepare practice plans, and game plans each week. In 2020, they game planned for games they could never be sure were going to happen. They would often have to scrap those plans and game plan for an entirely different type of team – on short notice – just to give their kids the best chance to compete. Some would learn – last minute – that a key player would not be available – adjusting the week’s plan yet again.
They did extra preparation just so the kids could play.
Schedules were condensed, and teams were playing multiple games in a week. One coaching staff had a week of game planning that – hopefully – will not be duplicated anytime soon. The Rosemount Irish, who had to cancel games early because of their own COVID concerns, played – and won – three games in eight days.
Around the same time, the Bemidji Lumberjacks had an opponent cancel a game due to COVID. The Lumberjacks scrambled to find a game and found a partner whose opponent also had to drop a game because their opponent had their own COVID issues. That opponent was the Edina Hornets. On short notice, the Lumberjacks drove 200 miles – one way to play the Hornets. They won the game – only to turn right back around and drive 200 miles home – later that night. They not only got a win but because Bemidji’s absurd travel schedule allowed the Edina kids to play, Edina sent the Lumberjacks home on their long bus ride with free pizza for their trouble.
They adjusted to their circumstances just so they and kids they will never meet could play.
I don’t know how the referees’ scheduling was handled, but I can’t imagine they were immune to ever-changing schedules and extra travel time.
They did it just so the kids could play.
I am sure I am missing countless other instances where kids, coaches, administrators, parents, officials, and volunteers went out of their way just so the kids could play.
The football community came together in 2020 like none other. Thank you to the medical people who kept this season as safe as possible. Thank you for the extra work done by coaches, administrators, parents, officials, volunteers, and especially the kids.
I hope the winter season is better than the fall season. I hope the spring season is better than the winter season, and by the time the helmets and pads start popping during pre-season practice 2021, we are back to normal – whatever our new normal is – and the kids can play without the drama of the previous eight months.
Regardless of how screwed up it was, I will always remember the 2020 football season as a season where the season’s focus became something that sometimes gets lost in our win-now culture. The season was focused less on victories on the field and more on the victory of allowing as many kids to play and play as safely as possible. That is a football season I can be on board with no matter the circumstances.