A few months ago when I looked at the calendar I saw New Orleans, Indy, Virginia, Indy, Columbus, Indy, Indy, and Indy weekends. And that was just April and May! Now after two months of stay-at-home orders, mowing the lawn seems like the highlight of most weeks.
But now we may be starting to get out a little bit more. In some states gyms are open and many more will do be in the next few weeks. Some states have already held baseball tournaments (in our state youth sports events are not on the list to start until mid-June). Just this week, my daughter's coach sent out feelers about parents' thoughts on playing some games at the end of June. Hopefully, most of the kids are excited about these opportunities. They miss the game. They miss their teammates. They miss new cities and eating out. The older ones may be missing chances to impress. It's great to see your child put in some work in the driveway, but there's only so many stationary ball handling drills that can be done (if there's any real purpose to those drills is for another blog!). It's been a challenge to keep sports fun when we're all missing such big parts of them.
So the kids should be fired up to get going. But are the parents? Most of us love the activities and games as well, and likely have been missing them on some level. But we've also been following the news and hearing the projections of what might happen with the COVID-19 virus. Will there be outbreaks later in the year? Is it still in the community? What really is the risk to my kid? Will they have to stop play to wipe down the ball after every pass?!?
Most of us don't love the unknown. And that is exactly what we are in right now. I would immediately flee from anyone who proclaims to have this all figured out. The NBA has had daily meetings and conferences since play stopped in March, and there still is no concrete idea on how to restart their league. And unfortunately, we're going to be living this unknown for a while. I doubt there will be any specific day in the near future when we can be given a rock-solid "all clear".
We don't do middle ground well in this country. You have to pick a side and dig in. Everyone likes to talk about "science" when it supports their point. But it seems like there are few who understand that the critically thinking scientist asks "how am I wrong?" It is a sign of maturity to consider and even hold two thoughts at once. We can be worried about deaths of vulnerable populations and the deaths of small businesses. We can wear a mask to stop us from shedding virus on others and think wearing it is kind of a pain in the butt. We can look forward to seeing our kids play a sport they love and cringe when we look at the overflowing single toilet at the tournament site.
So at some point, we'll all be hopping in the car and standing on a sideline again. And it's alright to not be totally comfortable. It's alright to be asking ourselves if we should be doing this. It's alright to tell the coach that your child is not feeling well this week and will be sitting out of the event. It's alright if your kids think that some of this has kinda sucked. Let them feel their emotions. And most importantly, it's definitely alright to tell your kids "I don't know."
For more information on youth sports and the coronavirus check out the excellent resources from The Aspen Institute's Project Play.
