You only get 4 years to experience High School Football, which many look back on as the fondest memories of their life. One of those years, and the last for us seniors, is on the verge of being taken away from us due to fear. The fear is based on the unknown. If we constantly make decisions based on fear, we’ll never make any progress. We, adolescents, have already sacrificed a lot since March, when our normal life was abruptly ripped from us due to Covid-19.  A study in New South Wales, Australia, found that children rarely infect adults, as the media loves to tell us we are going to do. Statements like going back to school and playing sports will “kill grandma” are made flippantly and without statistical support. According to Dr. Raszka, “the key takeaway is that children are not driving the pandemic… data showing that children are less likely to become infected and seem less infectious.” The overwhelming support to this claim, which will be in bullet points at the end, shows that, with proper precautions, all sports should be able to be played. The seasonal flu kills 4x the amount of children each year than Covid-19 has, but high schools continue to operate normally and their fields and gymnasiums are still packed without social distancing every winter and spring. All athletes and their families should have the right to choose whether they think it’s safe to play. You’ll find a vast majority will gladly sign a waiver giving their child a green light to do what they love. After high school, 93% of athletes will never struggle to fit into shoulder pads, stretch before a cross country race, pass a field hockey ball in warm-ups, or experience the once in a lifetime bonds that high school sports create important milestones in their lives.
High School kids face bigger threats to their health than Covid-19. Substance abuse, mental-health problems, stress and anxiety, and gun violence for urban areas. Sports are usually the escape for all of these problems; they keep us students on the right path. They give us organization and structure to our days and evenings and motivate us to do well in school. This is proven in the academic field as well. A study by the University of Kansas showed that 97% of high-school athletes graduate, which is 10% more than those who don’t participate in sports.
For us Seniors, we are having the rug pulled out from under us. We’ve followed all of the summer workout guidelines with no complaint because we were told we’d get to play in the end. We were all psyched to hear we were getting our 6/14 game seasons with playoffs. We all grew up dreaming of our senior nights, working towards state championships, and playing our last seasons with the friends we’ve made along the way. All of this is about to be taken away due to fear. Sports create incredible bonds that can’t be replicated anywhere else. I personally only recently started working out in New Canaan. I was immediately accepted by my teammates, and I’ve already made some friendships that will last me a lifetime, all thanks to football.
Kids in the Northeast, which was hit the hardest in the Spring when Covid first arose, have been getting together and hanging out as normal, whether it be pickup basketball or football, swimming, and just being kids. We’ve all been regularly exposed to each other, with no statistical consequence, so please just give us the chance to play. AAU and private sports leagues have been playing higher risk sports than football (basketball and wrestling) with packed indoor venues and rules saying any spectator not wearing a mask will be asked to leave the site. None of these tournaments have been the root of any spike. If high school sports are cancelled, these tournaments will continue to bring in athletes all across the country instead of sports within one state, which is way more of a risk.
To the CIAC, Governor Lamont, Connecticut superintendants, athletic directors, or whatever governing power is in your state, and school leaders, we, the athletes and their families, urge you to allow us the right CHOICE to do what we love, which is guaranteed to us in the 1stamendment. We will gladly follow all the guidelines we were given and our condensed seasons. If a teammate and their family deem it isn’t safe for them, they can opt out just as we choose to opt in with a waiver that holds US and our families legally accountable for our choices. We understand the risks completely, but we believe the positives far outweigh the negatives. Thank you for reading as I try to express the thoughts of the masses.