The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Spring athletes face dilemma after news
Logistics a concern if season can be saved
With schools across Ohio now closed until May 1, what does that mean for spring sports?
The academic school year in Ohio continues to get put on hold because of the novel coronavirus.
Going hand in hand is the spring sports season the member schools.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced on March 30 that schools will remain closed through Friday, May 1, in an effort to curb the spreading of the potentially deadly COVID-19 virus.
That means scholastic spring sports in Ohio — at the earliest — would not begin until May 2.
Prior to DeWine’s announcement, schools in Ohio were on an extended spring break that was to run through April 6. The most recent announcement pushes the earliest possible resuming of school back three additional weeks to Monday, May 4.
That leaves questions as to whether spring sports in Ohio will be played either on an abbreviated schedule, or at all (depending on if the school closures get pushed back even further).
The OHSAA has already announced that the winter sports tournaments are canceled. DeWine’s announcement on March 30 puts spring sports in question.
“If we can’t get back to school until May 4, and you figure you’d need at least a week to get kids back in playing shape, that puts us almost at the middle of May already,” said Lake Catholic athletic director Sam Colacarro. “I really don’t know what kind of season you’d have in two or three weeks. That’s a very limited time frame.
“You always hold out hope that something could happen. But it’s going to be really difficult.”
The OHSAA’s spring sports include baseball, softball, track and field, lacrosse and boys tennis. Boys tennis (May 29-30) has the earliest scheduled state tournament. Lacrosse (June 6), softball (June 4-6) and track (June 5-6) are schedule the following weekend, while baseball is scheduled for June 11-13.
While the OHSAA hasn’t announced its plan for spring sports since the governor’s announcement, it had already been discussed internally, as per a report from WCPO in Cincinnati on March 29.
“Our plans are to come back then,” Snodgrass told WCPO of the previous resuming date of April 6. “We also know that if that’s not realistic, then we have a
plan if it’s May 1.”
Those plans haven’t been made known yet, but the options probably include:
• Playing abbreviated seasons in all sports and pushing back state tournaments a few weeks; or
• Canceling the season all together, which likely wouldn’t happen unless the start of school is pushed back even further than it already has been, or if the remainder of the school year for on-campus classes is canceled.
Area coaches remain hopeful that some semblance of a season can still be salvaged, even if it is abbreviated.
“I think (the season) is in trouble. But at the same time, there’s hope,” said Mentor baseball coach Jeff Haase. “You’d like to get a couple weeks of play in and then play the tournament. I don’t know. It’s kind of uncharted territory.”
Haase’s Cardinals, as well as John Murphy’s Gilmour baseball team, were state-qualifying teams in 2019 and have a lot returning this season. Preparing for and playing an abbreviated season isn’t easy for any sport, no matter how seasoned the players might be.
“It’s not like a final exam you can cram for overnight,” Murphy said. “(Preparation) doesn’t happen overnight. These kids have to work on their own. They’d have six weeks of individual study, if you will, where they’re home doing stuff on their own to be ready when we resume.
“Every kid in high school wants that kind of competition,
the chance to compete for a state championship.”
Another sport that would take a lot of time to prepare for is track and field. Athletes likely wouldn’t be able to return to school on May 4 and be ready for a track meet on May 5.
Mentor boys track and field coach Bill Dennison said pushing the state meet back a few weeks would be an acceptable option if school does in fact begin May 4.
“I think we have to give people hope. It’s the only reason to keep moving throughout the day,” Dennison said. “These kids need something to shoot for, or I think they just kind of maybe say, ‘Forget about it,’ and don’t do anything.
“Whatever sport you may be doing, I think kids are working hard at home, just because there’s that glimmer of hope.”
Geneva girls track and field coach Bobby McQuoid is holding out hope, too.
“Optimistically, I’m hoping, just for the sake of these kids and the work they put in, that they get a chance to have their season,” he said. “I really don’t know. If that comes to, what type of situation are we putting these kids in, with the training and what they’ve been doing and what we’re allowed to do during this social distancing?”
Chardon softball coach Stewart Landies has a majority of his team returning from a run to the Division I regional tournament last spring. He, too, would be in favor of an abbreviated tournament that could be pushed back into mid-tolate
June as well.
“If school really opens on May 1 and we can play our conference games and the tournaments get pushed back in June, I could see that playing out,” Landies said.
It’s that hope that has him — and other area athletes and coaches — remaining somewhat positive.
Which isn’t easy. “Obviously I am hopeful something can be figured out and we get to play,” said South senior Riley Frizell, three-time News-Herald player of the year in softball. “But I don’t see how we can play a season that starts so late and we miss a month and a half of games. I hope we do, but it’s going to be tough.”
The whole scenario and how it is unfolding is unprecedented. Colacarro has been the athletic director at Lake Catholic since it opened in 1970 and said this spring is the most challenging.
“Whoever thought we’d be in a position like this?” he said. “What if this goes into fall? Geez! That’s a possibility.”
Haase looked at the happenings from a broader point of view, one that goes deeper than athletics and the possibility of losing spring sports all together.
“It’s also kids missing out on their prom, not getting to walk across the stage for graduation,” he said. “This whole thing is bigger than sports. I think we’re doing the right thing at this juncture. As tough as it is on the kids, what we’re doing is for the greater good.”