Title games a welcomed conclusion

We did it.

State finals were held for three days last week in Benton to mark the end of the 2020-2021 calendar year for high school team sports in Arkansas. The odds were long we’d reach this conclusion considering high school athletes faced the ultimate opponent: a covid-19 pandemic that’s killed nearly 600,000 people in the United States. But we did it. Better yet, you did it.

Because of you, we watched Rogers win a state championship in baseball when left fielder JT Melson caught a fly ball and threw a runner out at the plate to preserve a 3-2 victory over Springdale Har-Ber.

Because of you, Bentonville was able to play a full season in softball, where the Class 6A champions won 29 games and posted 19 shutouts.

And how about coach Alex Castillo, who spent 10 days in the hospital battling covid-19 before returning to lead his Bentonville West girls soccer team into the finals against Fayetteville, which won its first state championship since 2010?

With no season, none of these highlights would’ve happened.

So, let’s recognize and give thanks today to all the student-athletes, coaches, referees, administrators, teachers, doctors, scientists, health care providers, bus drivers, Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the Arkansas Department of Health, and members of the Arkansas Activities Association for their cooperation and guidance in making this happen. Because of you, our high school athletes forged memories that’ll last a lifetime.

“I can’t believe it,” JT Melson said after Rogers’ win. “I’m almost speechless. I really can’t believe it. … We’re state champions.” Indeed you are, JT. Well done. From March to August last year, there was uncertainty on whether we’d even have fall sports. Remember the cancellations during the football season when teams scrambled for replacement games and players had to sit out simply for sitting too close to someone in class who may have contacted covid-19?

There were plenty of examples of teams changing course in midweek, including Fort Smith Southside, which agreed to make the long trip to Texarkana for a game after its 7A-West Conference opener at Rogers was canceled because of covid-19 concerns involving the Mounties. Fort Smith Northside quickly scheduled a replacement game at Moore, Okla., then later played at Fayetteville after its league home game with Little Rock Central was canceled. In southeast Arkansas, Crossett was about two hours away from playing at DeWitt when the bus was told to turn around and head home after the game was canceled.

We got through it somehow and Greenwood was one of our area teams that went to Little Rock and came home with a state championship in football. Then came basketball and even more scrutiny with the games moving indoors, where covid-19 could spread more easily.

I remember being placed in the corner of a gym away from everyone and craning my neck at times while trying to following the action on both ends of the court. But I was fine with that and it was helpful when the public address announcer would occasionally remind the few fans who were allowed in the gym to socially distance and to wear their masks properly.

If any fan caused a scene, I don’t remember it.

March 12 came and went this year without disruption, unlike in 2020 when the sports world came to a full stop. So, again, we salute all of those who made this season possible and applaud athletes like Fayetteville’s Maddie Wilburn, whose team didn’t lose a game after being sidelined last year by the pandemic.

“To do it this way, with this group of girls after missing last season, was just amazing,” Wilburn said. “All of my best friends are on the team. This is one of the best feelings of my life.”