How Track Season Shutdown Affects Athletes
This Coronavirus is causing all types of uncertainty among coaches and athletes at both the high school and collegiate level. Spring sports have been cancelled but will we even get a Fall Season? We don’t know how long this pandemic will last but each day more questions and concerns get brought up about our current situation.
The Coronavirus pandemic forced the high school season to shut down. Juniors and Senior athletes are being robbed of an opportunity to put themselves on the map this season. With the season cancelled, the recruitment process for high school athletes just got complicated.
Jason Lewis, track coach at Eastmoor Academy said, “I had a hurdler (Ira Graham) who I thought was going to have a good year but there’s nothing you can do about it. I had some seasons where young men were not on the radar and it was their senior year, you know having a great state meet, having a great senior year that got them into school (college) and ultimately changed their life.”
Lewis has seen it firsthand with his athletes like Terry Johnson, Darius Perkins, and Scott Reaves that had a great senior season in high school and that got them recruited. He said, “It did something very powerful for their life.”
These types of situations happen every year across the country. Knowing athletes like Ira Graham and Cameron Long don’t get the chance to even fight for a radar spot this year is just sad but it’s the cold reality of what’s going on right now.
This virus is even stopping history from being made by Lewis and his track program. He said, “I found the old city records and Columbus Central was the only high school to ever win 10 city championships in a row. Historically we were going for that. The guys were excited about it.” Right now, Eastmoor Academy is behind Columbus Central for most city championships won in a row with 9. This virus has put that streak on hold for the time being.
To make things even more complicated for the high schoolers, the NCAA announced that senior athletes in college are eligible to get a do over on their season. This creates more dilemmas because now college coaches must decide whether they want to keep their senior or move on from them to get a high school kid looking to compete.
DeCarlo Blackwell, track coach of East High School broke down the situation. He said “Now with the NCAA allowing schools to bring back senior athletes it really dries up a lot of scholarship money because now that senior who you were expecting to leave comes back for that fifth year, that money isn’t there. So now those kids (high school) really get screwed cause they were counting on getting that money.”
Blackwell also explained why the junior class is the most affected class during all this whole pandemic. He said, “In order to get recruited, right now they are counting on times from their sophomore year. How many sophomores are competing at a high enough level to get noticed by colleges? Those kids are not even on the radar.”
Blackwell said, “You get recruited off your junior year and there is no junior year now. So, when you get back not only will you be a senior, but you’ll also be competing with kids that graduated before you. A lot of kids are going to have to go places next year as walk-ons.”
The Junior class of this year seems like a lost generation. They are going to have to work twice as hard to get what they want and it’s just tough for them because they can’t really control the factors set up against them.
Blackwell also brings up a concern not many people are talking about. With Spring Sports being cancelled and the public not knowing how long this virus is going to last, the fall season is in danger of being cancelled too.
Football is the biggest fall sport in Columbus City Schools. Being the biggest sport means you bring in the most money. With the fall season being potentially cancelled that will cause a lot of trouble for schools and their athletic budgets.
Blackwell said, “Football is the big money maker” and went on to explain why it is so important that a football season happens.
Not having a football season will cause a domino effect that will result in a lot of sports programs like track, volleyball, baseball, and softball teams to not have the budget they need for their seasons.
The slight silver lining to all this is that the basketball season happened. While not having the March Madness tournament, schools still made money from the regular season, so they have a bit of a buffer.
Smaller schools like Kent State, Toledo, and Akron aren’t being funded by their football program. They rely on basketball and student fees to help fund the athletic department. Schools in the Big 10 conference like Ohio State University, Michigan University and Iowa University aren’t hurting for money because it’s all in a big pot for the whole conference.
“It’s just as hard on the colleges as it is the high school kids” Lewis said. The decisions colleges are going to make next year are going to be tough. Feelings are going to get hurt and some athletes’ lives are going to change because of this. We must stay positive and hope everything goes back to normal soon.
