A loss for the kids
Morton's Hardy among many football players who didn’t get a fair shake in Hammond
Morton senior wide receiver Marcus Hardy got to the heart of the matter.
The kids and the football team didn’t have much of a voice in the Hammond school district’s decision to shut down contact sports for the first semester.
It was a devastating blow for Hardy, a borderline Division I college player who has an offer from Grand Valley State.
Hardy saw what happened at Lake Central when the administration recommended the suspension of contact sports. Parents pushed back, and the school board rejected the administration’s proposal.
Football is on at Lake Central. At LaPorte, football was suspended for two days after a positive COVID-19 test.
Some administrations want to try to make it work (perhaps with the help of parents), and others don’t.
That’s the way the football bounces in these uncertain times.
“Lake Central and Hammond are different,” Hardy said. “The parents at Lake Central want their kids to play. Only one parent went to the (Hammond) board meeting.”
Yes, but there was dirty pool involved.
School City of Hammond Superintendent Scott E. Miller didn’t tip his hand publicly before the meeting. Lake Central’s administration sent a letter out the week before Monday’s school board meeting advising that it would delay the start of contact sports because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hardy said his mother reached out to Miller via email, voicing her position, but “they didn’t say much.”
According to Morton coach Mac Mishler, offensive tackle Phil Gunn, a Ball State recruit, asked Miller during a meeting whether football would be canceled, and Miller wouldn’t give an answer.
At the very least, some resistance would’ve made it harder for Hammond’s school board to vote to suspend football.
Board members would’ve had to feel the pain instead of relying simply on the numbers.
Of course, shutting down contact sports in a pandemic is a viable option.
But playing the games while managing the risk is equally as viable.
If it weren’t, most of the state wouldn’t be playing football.
Every district had protocols in place to deal with positive COVID-19 tests. Unfortunately, Hammond didn’t give its schools a chance to see whether the protocols work during the season.
Hardy said he’ll likely transfer to finish his senior year.
It’s not that easy, though.
He’s not moving, so he’ll have to go to a school that has open enrollment and is playing football.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do for sure,” he said. “I’ll say I’m going to transfer. I’m bummed out. I wanted to play my senior year at Morton.”
Mishler is put in the unfortunate position of having to guide players with college scholarship opportunities through some difficult decisions about their future.
“It’s a big blow to the program,” Mishler said. “I’m sad and disappointed for the kids more than myself. We were seniorheavy. I think some kids are going to have to make some decisions they weren’t going to have to make before this happened.”
Morton quarterback Paris Hewlett definitely is moving on.
“It’s really depressing,” he said. “I worked all offseason to put us on the map and get a sectional championship for the community.”
And now Hewlett has to find a place to play quickly. He said he’s going to make a decision by Monday.
Asked whether it would be hard to make the transition to a different school, he said, “Physically, I’ll be all right. The toughest thing will be learning the playbook, but I’m a quick learner.”
We’ll know more in a few months if Hammond made the right decision. I have empathy for the school board and the administration. It’s not an easy call.
I just think the game was rigged against the kids. They didn’t have a fair chance to make their case publicly.
And that’s too bad.