I didn’t get too much feedback the last time I brought this up, but a few things have transpired in the meantime. We are in a pandemic, and the rate of infection has gone through the roof in Arizona and other places that didn’t seem to get hit too hard at first. Yesterday shattered the one-day record total of new confirmed cases in our state. Yes, they are testing more, but you and I all know that Arizona zoomed itself open and that has had a huge impact on cases.
Pro sports are still trying to wrestle with the dangers and come up with some kind of way to make even shortened seasons a reality. Dr. Anthony Fauci has stated on several occasions that he doesn’t see how football can even work at all, and that baseball should definitely not play deep into the Fall, as there will most certainly be a second wave of the virus.
So, what has happened since I last spoke about this. Well, there is no vaccine and the virus is still here. Period. End of story. As much as you may want to get back out there and crank it all up again, those two facts are the story. I see high school football and basketball teams conducting workouts and I wonder if they know something that I don’t. I’ve seen interviews where coaches say they are taking all the safety precautions to make sure that there is no touching of bodies and they are disinfecting everything that players come in contact with. Some football programs are not using balls. All that is great, but where is it headed? There is no vaccine and the virus is still there. I saw one program completely shut down summer work because someone’s sibling tested positive for Covid-19. People talk about phases of re-entry to full contact, but with no vaccine and the virus still present, how can they talk that way? What is the difference between now, where no one touches anyone, and later when the sports are fully up and running? The only difference that would make any sense is a vaccine, or a therapeutic that minimizes the effect of the illness.
I hear it said repeatedly that Covid-19 doesn’t affect young people as much as older people, so therefore it is OK to risk the well being of people in sports, because they are young. I even saw a post on Facebook where someone, presumably a young person, said it was selfish to be back out there, but that’s just the way it is. If they become positive and go back and infect their mom or dad, or their grandparents, or innocent strangers, then that’s just the way it is? It is not hard to see that with this virus and the many other things going on in our country right now, that someone may believe we have really lost our way. Football and basketball are team sports, where I believe most coaches try to instill a sense of teamwork into their groups, and a sense of caring about each other for the greater good. That is one of the essentials that a young person should take away from their participation in a team sport. My Dad fought across the Pacific in World War II- his best friend had been killed on the USS Arizona at the age of 17. People back here in the states dug in their heels and worked together to win that war. They had to deal with rationing of food and gas, blackouts and curfews, and ultimately the loss of 407,000 American lives to get that victory. It took almost four years and life was anything but normal. It was tough, but it was a war. This is a war, too. We have already lost 119,000 lives in just four months. The team we are on is humanity.
I understand why people are frustrated and eager to get back out there. I am a basketball coach and have never gone this long without coaching. I don’t understand, however, why wearing a mask is such a big deal to so many people. They make it sound like it is an invasion of privacy and unconstitutional. They point at the fourth amendment where they see some mystical “right to privacy” which is not stated at all in that document. Even the Supreme Court has ruled that there is no such thing as an absolute right to privacy. The public good will always supersede a right to privacy. Masks are to help prevent YOU from giving the virus to ME. And if we are playing sports, especially football and basketball, do we really believe that we are magically protected in a way that people in street are not? That has already been proven wrong with some college football teams. Even the PGA tour, which had put in place the most stringent protective measures possible, reported a positive case yesterday. Golf??
At MCC, our district has laid out plans for the Fall semester for regular students. Everyone will be required to wear a mask on campus- period. No gatherings of more than 10 people will be allowed and social distancing rules will be mandated. The question came up at a zoom meeting “what if someone tells you that they refuse to wear a mask?” We were told to try and reason with them, and if that fails, then call Public Safety and they will escort that person off the campus. So, let’s say you are a student there wearing your mask and following the rules, and you wander over to the gym and there are 15 guys or ladies working hard and scrimmaging on the basketball floor- clearly not wearing masks and not practicing social distancing. What are you to think about that? As of this writing, we have not been presented with any plan regarding the eventuality that if we start up sports, what will we do when people start getting infected, which they surely will. From what I gather, the AIA has not come up with any plan either. The NJCAA ruled yesterday that sports could basically start right up on August 1st, but disturbingly gave no plan either on what to do once students start becoming infected. They made it sound like they and the member schools will cross that bridge when they get there. Plans have been put forward for phasing in athletics at MCC, but there has been no plan that considers the two very important points I made earlier: there is no vaccine and the virus is still here. What will be done when players begin to get infected and who will they then infect? What will happen to seasons when entire teams are quarantined? Those are things that will happen- because the virus is still here and there is no vaccine.
Coaches, don’t say all those things about teamwork and caring to your players, then ignore your responsibility to your nation and the world. This is a war and wars are inconvenient.
