The virus…
Have to take a timeout from the background story for me to discuss the elephant in the room. The big reason I started the blog was because I was going nuts during the stay-at-home phase of the pandemic. I was trying to roust up a little discussion along the way, but there hasn’t been very much so far. Maybe when I get into more recent times there will be.
The elephant is, of course, the Covid-19 pandemic. There are so many things to hate about it- the apparent lack of concern globally when it broke out, the severity of the illness it causes, the horrible deaths inflicted on so many, and the taking away of so many things we love about life that it has caused. For this discussion, one of the main things it took away was sport. I am a college coach and for the last twelve years at MCC, I have been in the gym on most days year round. Now suddenly, that has been taken away- it has been almost three months since I have set foot in the gym. Like you, I am eager to get beyond this and get going again. But I am also cognizant of what we are facing when/if we do. Remember, the NBA came to a screeching halt when one or two guys were found to be infected. I mean the whole league stopped dead- followed by all professional and amateur sports.
So, what has changed since to make us believe that we should get back to competition? Really nothing. The virus is still out there and our lack of testing has made it difficult to follow. The infection rate slowed because radical steps were taken by society to not mingle with each other. Now, even though the rate of infection is not in an overall decline, it has slowed and we are ready to get back out there. Professional athletes are now being asked if they will begin to play in very altered circumstances- social distancing, daily testing, quarantined in hotels between games, empty stadiums. Many of those athletes are asking themselves and their player unions if it is worth the risk. Germany fired back up the Bundesliga soccer league, but within a week had new infections among players. Anyone who has come in contact with the player now has to quarantine for two weeks. If you are being paid, you just have to ask yourself if it is worth the risk, and if you believe it is, then go for it. That’s your livelihood, and you can make that decision. Heck, in Florida, they have even deemed pro sports as “essential”.
That’s not what we deal with, however, on this site and what most coaches across the country deal with. Our participants are amateurs and risking their lives and their coaches lives without having a vaccine is crazy. You can sign all the liability waivers you want on this one, but it is still unethical to the extreme, and no amount of phasing in will convince me that it is not too dangerous without a vaccine. When I first started coaching, there were no flu shots, and every year like clockwork, I got the flu- usually from one of the players. Since the advent of the flu vaccine, I don’t get the flu anymore, but most of our players do not get a flu shot, because we cannot force them to, and inevitably it strikes several of the players intermittedly through the season. Therefore, I must conclude that it is not a question of IF a player will become infected this fall with Covid-19, but a question of WHEN a player will get infected. Most schools are in no way able to commit to the finances of 24/7 monitoring of athletes. They could leave your facility negative today and come back positive tomorrow. How long will they have been contagious with it, and who did they have contact with? Did they play in a game against another team while they were contagious? Will our entire team, our trainer, and others around them have to be quarantined for two weeks after we find an infection? Will we have to forfeit games because we are in quarantine? I don’t think MCC can afford daily testing of athletes and I think that will an issue nationally. People are saying that this is just like the flu in severity, but Covid-19 has already killed almost 100,000 Americans in the short period it has been with us. It certainly seems more deadly, so if we want to try and build a herd immunity over the next several months by sacrificing student athletes, it will come at a high cost. Almost every health professional is predicting another more disastrous outbreak in the fall, once we have all relaxed and are mingling again. Basketball is very much a mingling sport, and without a vaccine, it could be a lab for Covid-19.
As much as I hate being in this mess, we are in fact in it. We must do what’s right for our charges- the kids and the student athletes. There are some hard choices ahead.
Have to take a timeout from the background story for me to discuss the elephant in the room. The big reason I started the blog was because I was going nuts during the stay-at-home phase of the pandemic. I was trying to roust up a little discussion along the way, but there hasn’t been very much so far. Maybe when I get into more recent times there will be.
The elephant is, of course, the Covid-19 pandemic. There are so many things to hate about it- the apparent lack of concern globally when it broke out, the severity of the illness it causes, the horrible deaths inflicted on so many, and the taking away of so many things we love about life that it has caused. For this discussion, one of the main things it took away was sport. I am a college coach and for the last twelve years at MCC, I have been in the gym on most days year round. Now suddenly, that has been taken away- it has been almost three months since I have set foot in the gym. Like you, I am eager to get beyond this and get going again. But I am also cognizant of what we are facing when/if we do. Remember, the NBA came to a screeching halt when one or two guys were found to be infected. I mean the whole league stopped dead- followed by all professional and amateur sports.
So, what has changed since to make us believe that we should get back to competition? Really nothing. The virus is still out there and our lack of testing has made it difficult to follow. The infection rate slowed because radical steps were taken by society to not mingle with each other. Now, even though the rate of infection is not in an overall decline, it has slowed and we are ready to get back out there. Professional athletes are now being asked if they will begin to play in very altered circumstances- social distancing, daily testing, quarantined in hotels between games, empty stadiums. Many of those athletes are asking themselves and their player unions if it is worth the risk. Germany fired back up the Bundesliga soccer league, but within a week had new infections among players. Anyone who has come in contact with the player now has to quarantine for two weeks. If you are being paid, you just have to ask yourself if it is worth the risk, and if you believe it is, then go for it. That’s your livelihood, and you can make that decision. Heck, in Florida, they have even deemed pro sports as “essential”.
That’s not what we deal with, however, on this site and what most coaches across the country deal with. Our participants are amateurs and risking their lives and their coaches lives without having a vaccine is crazy. You can sign all the liability waivers you want on this one, but it is still unethical to the extreme, and no amount of phasing in will convince me that it is not too dangerous without a vaccine. When I first started coaching, there were no flu shots, and every year like clockwork, I got the flu- usually from one of the players. Since the advent of the flu vaccine, I don’t get the flu anymore, but most of our players do not get a flu shot, because we cannot force them to, and inevitably it strikes several of the players intermittedly through the season. Therefore, I must conclude that it is not a question of IF a player will become infected this fall with Covid-19, but a question of WHEN a player will get infected. Most schools are in no way able to commit to the finances of 24/7 monitoring of athletes. They could leave your facility negative today and come back positive tomorrow. How long will they have been contagious with it, and who did they have contact with? Did they play in a game against another team while they were contagious? Will our entire team, our trainer, and others around them have to be quarantined for two weeks after we find an infection? Will we have to forfeit games because we are in quarantine? I don’t think MCC can afford daily testing of athletes and I think that will an issue nationally. People are saying that this is just like the flu in severity, but Covid-19 has already killed almost 100,000 Americans in the short period it has been with us. It certainly seems more deadly, so if we want to try and build a herd immunity over the next several months by sacrificing student athletes, it will come at a high cost. Almost every health professional is predicting another more disastrous outbreak in the fall, once we have all relaxed and are mingling again. Basketball is very much a mingling sport, and without a vaccine, it could be a lab for Covid-19.
As much as I hate being in this mess, we are in fact in it. We must do what’s right for our charges- the kids and the student athletes. There are some hard choices ahead.
