The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Community ponders other side of pandemic
There may be a number of elements to the novel coronavirus pandemic’s effect on sports in the present and future that don’t and won’t yield universal agreement.
One aspect, though, on which all parties can likely agree: The other side — as smoothly and safely as possible, of course — can’t come soon enough.
Since the outbreak began in early March, The News-Herald has asked several area track and field coaches and athletes about how the other side will look for the sport after the pandemic: BEACHWOOD’S MADDIE ALEXANDER » “I think in the future, people are not going to take for granted those little things like team bus rides and team dinners, all the practices we have together.”
MAYFIELD BOYS COACH STEVE CANFIELD » “There will be kids like that for sure that are definitely appreciative. But we’ve got to keep looking forward. That’s the thing — make them forget about what did not happen. You can’t do anything about the season that you missed. Take advantage of the opportunities that you have and be grateful. That’s what sports are. That’s the nature of high school sports. Enjoy it for what they are and be appreciative that you’re getting an opportunity to hang around with your friends, your peers and everything and be a part of a team.”
GILMOUR BOYS COACH JIM CHAPPELLE »
“I know for a fact, they’re going to put their head down, and they’re really going to work hard. Because they know tomorrow is not promised. That whole thing could end like it did this year. Everybody thought, ‘Well, I’ll come out later. I’ll do this. I’ll do that.’ No — now is the time. And the motto is, ‘Seize the time.’ And that’s what’s going to have to happen. Every day. Every workout. Every meet. You’re going to have to put that optimum effort in and just lay it all out there. And I believe they will. I think at Gilmour, they will. I know they will at Chardon. I know they will at Mentor. And those are some of the top programs around. I know they will at Beaumont. So they’re going to get out there. They’re going to put their best foot forward, and I think it’s going to be amazing.”
MAYFIELD’S JOSIE CONTI »
“It’s something that I enjoy. It’s something that is such a big part of who I am. So when the opportunity was taken away, I realized how much it actually meant. And it really just put it in perspective for me, and I know it probably put it in perspective for a lot of other athletes to say, ‘Hey, this wasn’t just another sport. This is where I felt I had the most development as an athlete, as a student and as a person.’ And so when that was taken away, it just made me feel a little lonely. I lost a part of myself because I couldn’t perform.”
BEACHWOOD’S CHRISTIAN MAYFIELD »
“I feel like, when athletes come back, they’re going to want to work harder, and they’re going to want to train more. Because they don’t have a lot of time, they’re going to come back hungry.”
GENEVA GIRLS COACH BOBBY MCQUOID »
“I think you can’t take for granted every opportunity you have to come together as a team and the value of what it is to be in any sport. Because when they take something away from you as far as training partners or teammates and facilities, it’s tough. And for me, to really get the chance to see these kids every day is one of the hardest things that I have to deal with, especially because I am there with them a little longer during an indoor season. It is tough. There’s nothing more I would rather do than see these kids every single day.”
EUCLID GIRLS COACH LARRY NOSSE »
“I think, until this is all completely away, you’ll see people being a lot more self-conscious. I don’t know if you’re going to have the amount of teams and size of teams that you’ve had before. Obviously, with the numbers we have at Euclid, it’s not as big as it’s been in the past. But to see some of the teams that we face, Mentor, Strongsville and Medina, some of the teams that are very large in size, I don’t know if you’ll see those type of teams anymore. I think it’s going to make it really rough until this is all said and done, until there is obviously a vaccine or things go away, people aren’t going to want to be around such a large group.”
BEACHWOOD’S ASHLEY PERRYMAN »
“I think that this time of not having sports shows us how much it really means to us. It almost puts a fire under all of us for being able to participate in the things that we like to do. So I think it’s definitely going to make all the athletes stronger in the effect that it’s perseverance.”
PERRY COACH LAYNE RICHARDS »
“Absolutely. I know it’s going to make me more appreciative. It will sure make the kids a lot more appreciative. You just never know. You have the injury side of sports, and injuries have always been a part of sports. We don’t want anybody to get injured. Athletes have lost seasons or opportunities. But with this kind of stuff, when everything just went on lockdown and stuff got taken away outside of your control, you never know when you step onto a track or a basketball court or a football field. It may be the last time — or somebody takes it away from you.”
GILMOUR’S ANDRE RODGERS »
“They’ll be more appreciative, because people take sports for granted and the bonds that you create. For the seniors this year, I feel bad because it was their last season. And going into next season, it just teaches me to take advantage of every opportunity I have and go hard every time that I have because you never know when something can be taken from you. Something like this crisis can come up.”
BEACHWOOD COACH WILLIE SMITH »
“I think a great majority of kids will be more appreciative. We take so many things for granted. My skills wise, that will be my message. We talk about life as it relates to athletics and use life skills in our athletics so when our kids are performing, they are using those skills from the track to be better people. We try to deal with the total component. And so a lot of what we discuss is about transitioning and transferring. We learn from competition and hard work to be in that way when all of this is over. It will correlate very well to what we do naturally.”