In light of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases throughout the country, many school districts have taken the initiative of canceling sports’ seasons for precautionary reasons, given that sporting events usually institute large gatherings of people, which is the perfect way for the virus to spread.

This decision sparked many negative emotions from athletes in nearly all the states, especially from those athletes that take part in a spring sport. After the excitement built having just gotten started with their season, it was taken away from them so quickly.   

Online protests were created and athletes voiced their strong opinions all over social media. It was very clear they were upset, but it seemed that a lot of those feelings were being released improperly. Instead of proposing solutions to this problem, it appeared that a lot more complaining was going on, along with unnecessary angry statements.

Now, it’s more than valid to be upset about the situation. It all happened rapidly. Seniors were robbed of their last year to take part in their sport, and all the other grades lost a precious year of putting their athleticism to use. I’m personally affected by this; I was just about to start swimming league for the first time, and it was something I was really looking forward to putting a lot of effort into, and now that opportunity is gone.

However, it’s not like there was much of a choice. There is simply too much of a risk for the athletes, for the viewers and those to whom it may potentially spread to. The decision was made for the sake of the public health, and if there was any way around it, the districts likely would’ve gone forward with that. 

Not to mention, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has already given athletes of spring sports an additional season of eligibility to play. It’s likely other sports organizations will do the same. 

All in all, the decision to cancel all sports, for the time being, is reasonable. Very reasonable, really. What’s not reasonable is people getting excessively mad. Nobody deserves the blame for these circumstances, and it’s probably in everyone’s best interest to keep a positive attitude about the situation. 

If anything, what’s really unfortunate and harder to replace and reschedule to a later time are things like prom or graduation, but obviously sports are just as important. However, they are also more flexible, unlike the aforementioned activities.