My oldest granddaughter is an 18-year-old senior at a school in south-central North Carolina.
It was supposed to be a special time with the countdown to graduation.
Most of us recall our final year in high school with fondness and a bit of trepidation.
She’s been accepted to three colleges, including a scholarship to Penn State (don’t ask), and is waiting on two others, but most likely will pick a school in the North Carolina system. A few pep talks were required as she frets over possibly making the wrong decision.
Oh, she’ll be fine, in the Top 10% of her class of 186 and, this year, without the anxiety of SATs.
But I’ve spent most of the last eight months merely feeling sorry for her.
As fulfilled as my life has been — really enjoying the time in college and privileged to enter a tremendously rewarding career — some of my fondest memories are of my senior year at a new school.
There will be no such recollections for my granddaughter or the hundreds of thousands of her peers whose final scholastic semesters are a blur of Zoom classes, masks and social distancing. In her district, students were given the choice of hybrid learning — two or three days at school, the others virtually — or full-time at home via computer.
She chose the latter, wary of the Covid-19 risk even with only intermittent in-school attendance. Plus, while she has tennis this spring, swimming was a pandemic victim. Of course, she views both as social activities rather than competitive endeavors.
Virtual learning kept her away from her friends and the only reason she went to a prom was that parents at her boyfriend’s school staged one independently.
It couldn’t have been a worse year for high school seniors nationwide.
AND THAT brings me to scholastic sports.
This school year has been a mess athletically with abortive seasons and fits and starts caused by positive tests.
Even the states couldn’t agree on how to deal with coronavirus. Bordering Pennsylvania opted to take the risk of getting athletics in during their respective seasons.
New York, on the other hand, with an abundance of caution and in the face of intense criticism, didn’t OK sports until after the winter season normally starts. Besides the routine spring athletics, football and volleyball were added to that season, forcing some multi-sport athletes to make a choice.
However, at least seniors did get their final seasons, albeit often in abridged fashion, and were or will be accorded their farewells.
But for parents, fans and even media this has been a scholastic athletics year like no other. It’s been so discordant that normal seasons, the excitement of the playoffs and even the presence of crowds have been somewhat lost to diminished interest.
A FINAL THOUGHT.
This past weekend I talked with a retired Big 30 football coach and he offered some interesting observations.
“I’m not so sure New York moving football to the spring was well-thought-out,” he said. “Teams are only playing a half schedule (4-5 games) — on different days of the week, at that — and there were schools which had to quarantine for 14 days, without practicing, and then played a game three days later. That’s just not fair to players or coaches.”
Then there’s the peripheral matter of equipment.
“When we finished a season, we’d immediately get our gear to the people who refurbish it and usually we’d get it back in June,” he said. “This year helmets and pads are going to the outfitter six months later and you’re hoping to get them back by August when practice starts. But, it also has to be certified that the work was done and with so many schools needing to do it at the same time; that’s a tight window.”
(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
