County’s high school athletes deserve to play

Let them play already! Maui County’s high school student-athletes deserve to play!

They are safe to play, and they need to play. There’s no reason for them not to play, unless they or their parents choose not to participate. However, they need to have the choice!

Our youth have been doing their best in school, sitting in front of a computer for hours on end, trying to learn concepts and how to use technologies and manage their own time under stressful situations.

I crossed paths with a high school football player that I had not seen for a few months, and greeted him with, “Hey, how ya doin’, you hangin’ in there?” His response was a sincere, desolated, “barely.” (I felt the weight of his despair.)

We need to realize the value of our kids’ overall health. Isn’t that why we take the safety measures that we do now, make the adjustments to the so-called “new normal,” and the sacrifices included?

There is nothing normal or acceptable about every student-athlete senior missing his/her last season, or the underclassmen having their healthy activities taken away from them!

Please get on your phone, send out the emails, post on social media, stand on the street corners and communicate to the “powers-that-be” to stop dragging their feet, and that school sports needs to happen!

If families, politicians and community members truly care about our kids, then we will get them back to school and let them play their school sports.

Kevin Grant

Wailuku