High school sports rally in Anne Arundel

Amix of 200 high school parents, players and coaches crowded Earleigh Heights Volunteer Fire Company station in Severna Park Monday night to call for the return of high school sports, one night before the Anne Arundel school board discusses options for resuming competition.

Recognizable community faces including sportscaster Keith Mills, radio personality Vinny Cerrato of 105.7 The Fan and former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich spoke briefly about the negative effect a lack of sports because of coronavirus restrictions has had on the athletes gathered before them.

With masks visible everywhere to help slow the spread of the virus, players chanted for the return of sports for each individual school present and then gathered around posters to sign their names, schools and teams. Players and parents said they hope the combination of private and public school voices, especially in a county as prominent as Anne Arundel, will help motivate a decision in their favor.

“It will help because the more parents, the more schools, the more coaches, the better off. The merits don’t change — all parents I meet say the same thing. The rec teams, the pros, the colleges — they’re all playing,” Ehrlich said.

The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association last month gave the state’s 24 school districts the option of playing high school sports as early as Wednesday. So far, none of the biggest counties have agreed to play until next year. Private school sports in the Baltimore area also are on hiatus, with meets set later this month to discuss a plan to resume play.

Dennis Lynch, whose son Liam, a freshman at Archbishop Spalding in Severn, plays football, lacrosse and wrestles, said “any action on the public school side helps us, and any action on the private school side helps them.”

Ehrlich also emphasized two groups of kids: One that will have a shot to play college sports, and one who will only have memories the minute they walk off the graduation stage.

“How about the 85 percent of the kids who will not play in college for whom this is so important, for whom this has been their life work, for whom they’ll be in their 80s remembering their high school games? — I hope,” Ehrlich said.

“If you lose that, you lose something that’s real and something that’s intangible.”