Covid-19 has caused an end of most areas of life, with sports being no exception. To the extent of having social distancing measures to prevent the spread of the virus, which has also caused a major impact on sports fixtures. Every aspect of sport across the world has been affected by this, from the athletes themselves to the community who supports these young athletes. Athletes across the united states are unaware and worried of what happens next with regards to the collegiate career as an athlete. Most athletes, in order to pertain an education require sports in order to receive an athletic scholarship, without sports a high number of athletes would be left with no solution to gain an education, with the fact that athletes on scholarship usually come from lower income or middle class house holds where an athletic scholarship is the only option to gain an education at the collegiate level.
Athletes at Our Lady of the Lake still worry with regards to the pandemic , athletes are worried whether their athletic season will take place. Our lady of the lake university men’s basketball Darin Minnifield keyed in on the issue with this to say “ it can go either way there’s a lot of talk about if this virus is really what its made out to be I feel that we need to play and carry on with sports with some restrictions such as no fans or coaches must wear masks etc. what people don’t understand is that this is something we have been working for our whole lives since the age of 3 I’ve been playing basketball and the game plan was to use basketball as a tool to open doors such as a scholarship and many other things which basketball has allowed me to do, not having basketball almost makes me feel like a loss of meaning”.
Most conferences across America have cancelled all fall semester sports, some colleges are looking into how to come up with an ideal solution, which will allow a season to take place. The pandemic and severity of the virus has also forced many universities to ultimately close and inform all students that all classes and work to take place from home and online without any sort of activity taking place on campus. However there has been some universities which are forgoing to continue regular classes with slight restrictions for example Our Lady of the Lake university enforcing a class limitation, certain areas have limited access, all in order to prevent the spread of the virus.
The return of college sports looms large. But not just for the fans, but in terms of generating money for the school. College sports brings a large amount of income to schools, so schools are hesitant with ideas to what would be ideal for the upcoming year. For example fans in attendance constantly buying tickets, fans buying food and items from concessions in order to watch the college athletes play. These all generate a large income for schools. so terminating sports for the upcoming year could be detrimental for the school as well as the athletes. Another gray area which is ignored is international athletes who have left their home countries in order to pursue an education whilst playing sports and being forced to leave the united states with very short notice causes a conflict and frustration amongst the international recruits. Edvin Tedesjo a member of our lady of the lake university men’s basketball team who was born and raised in Sweden. Edvin was recruited by Coach Dial as an international recruit and due to the pandemic was forced to leave the dorms and depart the USA with a notice of a week. “Its just unfair on us international students who leave our home country to try and make a name for ourselves and for a better life earn a degree whilst playing the sports we love, and to then be told we have to leave at such short notice is really humiliating and nerve racking because you don’t know what your next move is going to be”. The pandemic has brought out a lot of views and opinions about the matter. Some say that the pandemic is fake and its being used a tool for the election some are adamant that there is a deadly virus which people should enforce the rules being put in place. The situation is difficult to dissect because of social media influence as well that plays a huge role in everyone’s lives.
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