High school sports delay

By Ed Piper

With yesterday's (Dec. 1) announcement by the California Department of Public Health that they won't revisit the viability of playing high school sports until Jan. 1, we're stuck in the ongoing mess that is the coronavirus.

Really, it looks like now that we are going to wait until the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are implemented (beginning Dec. 15) and take effect over the next several months--so that summer 2021 we can begin to imitate what "normal" life used to look like before the COVID-19 shutdown way back on March 13.

I don't know how we can do anything else. Live life as best we can, obey the governor's directive (if he goes ahead and issues it) for stay-at-home, then look for signs of normalcy long about the end of next spring.

My hat goes off to the seniors at La Jolla High and other local schools, who have had to endure the pandemic and face the trappings of their senior year being cancelled: prom, graduation, even regular sports. It has all been a mess.

But let's take heart. Let's keep in mind all those lives that have been (and will be) lost to the virus. Meanwhile, do your distance learning by laptop, and keep heart, because we will overcome this thing and we will return to activities that we're used to some time late next year.

I have experienced all the ups and downs that everyone else has gone through during these nine months of COVID restrictions. We've all struggled. You can go for a walk around the block, but going to the store you still have to wear the stupid mask. In substitute-teaching, I've got to battle the distance learning approach to reach students in Poway and San Dieguito districts, which I've done several times in the last three months.

It hasn't been easy. It has been hard to even connect with others personally, while keeping safe as an older, at-risk person (my wife and I hardly go anywhere). The mask can be frustrating, muffling our speech and creating a roadblock to interacting with others in the ways we normally do.

Frankly, I don't know if football season is going to happen. Maybe if they postpone it even later and play games starting in March or April it could struggle to a finish. I think May is going to be a month in which activities start to pick up and gain momentum, at least if the vaccines are being given beginning this month. It will take millions of vaccinations that many months to be given and to be effective. At least, that's what I'm reading right now.

What will school year 2021/2022 look like? I hope a bit more of "normalcy". We can be hopeful, and we can encourage our kids and young people to think of this as a rough period in which we practice self-care, concern for family members and community, and look ahead to something better.