State spring sports season over before it gets started

Any remaining hope of a high school spring sports season ended Tuesday when Maryland schools Superintendent Karen Salmon announced that the state was canceling athletic events for the remainder of the school year.

That includes championships for spring sports and the state basketball tournament that was cut off in March.

The decision is in keeping with social distancing recommendations to fight the coronavirus pandemic but represents a disappointment to tens of thousands of high school athletes, particularly seniors who lose the chance to play with their teammates or shoot for championships together.

The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association will begin planning athletics’ return in accordance with Gov. Larry Hogan’s multi-phased program to reopen the state, according to a news release.

The statement expressed “heartfelt gratitude and admiration to all of our member schools’ graduating seniors, underclassmen, coaches, administrators, and extracurricular athletic and activity

sponsors who have dedicated countless hours to these programs.”

“The MPSSAA and the Maryland State Department of Education share your collective desire for the return of these highly beneficial educational programs when it is safe for all school communities,” the release adds.

The spring seasons of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association and Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland, which supervise private school athletic competition in the area, were canceled April 21.

Spring sports tryouts and practices began Feb. 29, and the first original play date was set for March 20 before the state closed schools. Several teams had already played scrimmages.

“While many of our student-athletes and coaches were preparing for this possibility, the finality of the decision is still a painful reminder for so many students who have worked so hard only to have the season lost," John Davis, Howard County’s athletics coordinator, said in a statement. "We are especially saddened for our seniors who have had too many traditionally memorable experiences canceled or altered this spring.”

Salmon had previously announced that schools would remain closed through at least May15.

Maryland surpassed 20,000 cases of the novel coronavirus Tuesday; at least 929 people have died.

Salmon, speaking at a state school board meeting, said the decision includes all spring state championships. The state basketball tournament that was postponed March 12 is also canceled.

For Baltimore’s Poly boys basketball team, Tuesday’s news made it official that the Engineers would not be able to take aim at a fourth straight Class 3A state title.

It ends the chance for All-Metro senior Rahim Ali to become the first point guard in state history to be a starter on four state title teams. Senior forward Ian Wallace also had the opportunity to be a part of four state title teams, and All-Metro senior forward Brandon Murray was set to surpass 1,000 points in his two years at Poly, just 24 points shy going into the team’s semifinal game against Northeast.

Poly coach Sam Brand is grateful his family is healthy and that he has extra time to spend with them while still having his job as a math teacher and coach at the school.

The one disappointment is the unfinished business on the team’s promising season.

“We’re a program that takes our goals very seriously. So the opportunity to get that fourth straight, I’ll never forget this time when our special groups of seniors were denied that chance and our program was shut down at such a great point in the season when we were set to cap it off,” Brand said.

“But the truth is, because life is bigger than basketball, my most profound memories from this will be this time at home with my family and how people are adjusting. [The team] is on Zoom calls three days a week, working out together as a program and we’re talking about things that go way beyond basketball on those calls. So we’re continuing to grow and makes adjustments and that’s really what life is about.”

Poly’s scheduled opponent, Northeast, realized the likelihood of their game being played was slim to none.

It’s been more than a month since the postponement, just seconds before the Eagles were set to ride the bus to College Park for their first state semifinal appearance since 1983, but it’s not just time that will help soothe the wounds of losing a chance to play at the state tournament.

“They wanted to play. They were still hungry,” Northeast coach Roger O’Dea said. “Getting back together and seeing each other and having time to get back to where we were would be the best thing. But that might be a while.”

Some players and coaches in Anne Arundel County were holding out hope that the spring season would return at some point. An abbreviated season would have meant something to Arundel softball coach Lisa Mills.

At least, she said, her Wildcats would have gotten a taste of the sport they loved.

“This beats the alternative, everybody being sick, but it’s a big loss. It’s a big part of these girls’ lives,” Mills said. “It’s been ripped away from them.”

Arundel’s roster carried one senior, Skylar Morley. It’s a small consolation in Mills’ mind, the coach said, that Morley will continue her softball career at the college level.

For the county’s underclassmen, losing this season is painful but there is “always next year.”

“I feel like I’ve been hopeful that we’re going to go back, because it’s been so much fun already even though games haven’t started," said Chesapeake junior Georgia Spangler, a midfielder for the girls lacrosse team. "It’s not going to be easy. It’s my favorite sport out of the whole year. It’s going to suck, but there’s always next year.”

Chesapeake athletic director Chip Snyder is still hoping to arrange some kind of inperson honors for the seniors, even if it means staggering families in and out.

Michael Duffy, Carroll County’s supervisor of athletics, said, “I think most people were able to see the writing on the wall and saw this coming, so it wasn’t a total shock.”

As for what’s next, Duffy said that the worst thing would be to rush into any further decisions.

“I think we need to let things kind of play out. I feel absolutely horrible for the seniors. Not just senior athletes, seniors in general. My daughter is a senior; I certainly understand their perspective," he said. "But at the same time, if you gave me the choice of dropping a lot of these activities and keeping people safe, or having these activities and putting thousands of people at risk, I’d make the decisions we’ve made every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

“It’s simply not an option.”

Manchester Valley senior Brett DeWees, who was Carroll County boys basketball Player of the Year and an All-County catcher for the baseball team last spring, lamented the situation: “It sucks.”

“I don’t want to go out with not playing another baseball game,” he said. “High school is different. Travel ball, you play a lot of tournaments, a lot of showcases, so it’s like … the games don’t really matter because you just play a round-robin with college coaches there. But with high school, you’re playing to win. You’re playing with the guys you grew up with.”

“I don’t want to … miss that season.”

“This beats the alternative, everybody being sick, but it’s a big loss. It’s a big part of these girls’ lives. It’s been ripped away from them.”