The new-look sports season is only a few days old, as some high school sports teams have returned to competition, and having gone to a few games over the weekend, I’m struck by one thing; at least right now, it doesn’t feel that different than any other fall season.
Maybe it’s the energy which our local student athletes have taken the field with—no small surprise given their uncertainty about the season and the lengthy
layoff that kept them cooped up for the better part of the last seven months—but, at least while I was patrolling the sidelines with my camera, it wasn’t hard to imagine I was simply covering mid-October athletics in a year untouched by the coronavirus.
Now, that’s not to say there aren’t certain things that are impossible to ignore. The dearth of fans in the stands—NYSPHSAA guidelines allow no more than
two visitors per home athlete and many schools are barring visiting fans from the bleachers—was readily apparent on Monday afternoon, as I was catching the finals of the Broncofest Tournament at Bronxville High School; an ostensible neutral site game played between Mamaroneck and Pelham. But the lack of bleacher availability—and the inclement weather—did little to dampen the enthusiasm for the parents and fans who congregated in small pockets just
outside of Bronxville’s campus to cheer on the student athletes.
They might have been a bit further away than normal, but they still exhorted on their players with understandable gusto. The masks, too, are another
thing we need to get used to, both as athletes and as sports fans in general. I spoke to a few high school players last week who—while cognizant of the need for
masks on the field, also acknowledged that wearing protective face-coverings affected their breathing on the field. It would take some time to get used to, they
admitted, but if wearing a mask made the difference between having a season or not, it was a sacrifice that they were glad to make.
That sort of fearlessness was represented in the field of play as well. At least in the games that I saw, there was very little tentativeness on the part of the players. Players were still battling for headers on corner kicks or beating offensive players to a spot to prevent an easy goal.
It was honest-to-goodness sports and the fact that at least some of our student-athletes are able to participate should be celebrated.
Of course it doesn’t mean we are out of the woods yet, however. It is important that we remain vigilant in preventing the spread, not only to save lives but also to ensure that the rest of our student-athletes have a time to shine this year.
After all, they’ve earned it.
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