The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
• Area winter teams moving on after announcement.
OHSAA cancels remaining hoops, wrestling tournaments; athletes, coaches disappointed, but outcome was expected
The other shoe finally dropped. Weeks after suspending the remaining games of its winter sports tournaments indefinitely, the OHSAA announced in a news release March 26 that it was canceling those tournaments.
The decision comes alongside the continued postponement of spring sports seasons.
“It doesn’t feel any different.
We’ve kind of already moved on to the next thing. I’m big on teaching my guys the Olympic style of wrestling,” Keystone wrestling coach Christopher Vondruska said. “It’s sad to hear about the Olympics being postponed along with our freestyle and Greco season possibly getting canceled. We’re kind of holding on for that.”
Vondruska was one of several area coaches preparing athletes for state tournaments when the decision was made to postpone.
Another was Elyria Catholic girls basketball coach Eric Rothgery.
“I’ve expected this all along,” Rothgery said. “I just didn’t see logistically how they could try to pull this together. Especially with where we’re at now kind of in limbo with everything. It’s disappointing of course, but it was what we expected.”
The Keystone coach, and his state qualifier Nick Hickman, were in Columbus when the indefinite postponement was announced.
Vondruska gave Hickman a week off from wrestling, while still keeping contact in case the tournament was back on.
“I want to keep our relationships intact. We’re communicating here and there, we’re still trying to figure out when our banquet is going to be,” Vondruska said. “Nick is fine. He just texted me today that he misses it. But the good news is that he still has another year and I’m excited to see what he can do.”
Similar to Vondruska and Hickman, Rothgery and his team were already in Columbus preparing for their state semifinal against Berlin Hiland when the news broke.
But now with a chance at the state title gone, the Elyria Catholic coach and his eight seniors can only look back at their season and reminisce about their accomplishments.
“We had a great season and we’re going to try to make that what we look back at with this season,” Rothgery said. “When I look back on it I’ll remember another conference championship, another district championship and another regional championship.”
Now the question for winter sports coaches and athletes is, what’s next?
For Elyria wrestling coach Erik Burnett, it’s enjoying the time spent with family while you have it, because once the quarantine is over, it’s back to work.
“Typically we go to Fargo in July and then run one camp and then have downtime, which is where we’re at right now,” he said.
“So right now it’s kind of like you embrace this little bit of time you have and spend as much time with your family as possible. That was my text to the kids today, enjoy your family time and time with the loved ones. We’re going to get very busy in the future so enjoy this time now while you have it.”