V 10 N 56 If I Were a High School Senior Class of 2020 and Two Old Coaches

We all know that college is a big "IF"  at the moment.  Fall classes are going to be online in some institutions.  The Ivy League has cancelled fall sports if I heard that correctly.  They are the bright ones, some of the others may follow.

Imagine you won your state track championship as a junior two seasons ago and your 2020 season was all but cancelled.  You had several offers to schools with good track programs, you gained acceptance without your parents bribing an admissions officer and facing federal charges.  What would you be thinking?

Hey, I'm the man this year, but my options are diminishing.  The A.D. at my university of choice is thinking maybe of dropping a few sports to cover lower revenues from football and basketball this year.  And they are laying off some of the minor sport assistant coaches.   And the distance coach I really like at Podunk U.  started delivering pizzas and is starting an online coaching service.

Should I just sit out a year and start in the Fall of 2021?   Jobs are scarce for recent high school graduates.  And  hey, I'll miss a year of competition and those guys a year behind me may get to compete next Spring and have better times than me.  I won't be able to bum around Europe and get in some meets over there.  The Europeans don't want us contaminating their shores.

I could stay at home, if they'll let me, and go to a community college and workout on my own.  It will just be like the 1950s and '60s when freshman couldn't compete.  But I won't be with a bunch of experienced runners, learning from them.

All I can say is I'm glad I'm not in that dilemma.   George Brose

Some other conversations preceded this rendering above.

  The coronavirus forced a dramatic and painful decision: Faced with a nearly $25 million deficit next year, Stanford became the first known Power Five school to eliminate athletic programs because of the pandemic, announcing Wednesday that 11 of its 36 varsity sports will be shuttered next year.

The school will discontinue men’s and women’s fencing, field hockey, lightweight rowing, men’s rowing, co-ed and women’s sailing, squash, synchronized swimming, men’s volleyball and wrestling after the 2020-21 academic year. Stanford also is eliminating 20 support staff positions.

Okay, I'll give you wrestling and volleyball as real competitive sports but the rest.....really?  Roy

I had exactly the same sentiments when I saw the article.   I wonder if Wyoming will drop rodeo.  And some Rocky Mountain schools may have to drop skiing.  And for a while Miami of Ohio had in line skating for women and the only competitive arenas were in Europe. WTF.  Who will miss it?  Some of these sports were the ones that the rich mommies and daddies were bribing and lying about to get their kids admitted, with no intention of their participating, which is okay if your moral fiber is weak.  It's money in the coffers.  They don't realize this may be a way to increase income from these spoiled brats and their asshole parents.  When I was coaching at  " " University, we had over 30 girls on the cross country team and only one scholarship.  The rest paid their own way, and this was money in the bank for the school.  A lot of sports are this way, but the accounting doesn't reflect this.   George

When I was a child most parents felt the best way to deal with measles/mumps was to expose children to kids who were inflicted with the virus, and get it over with (and develop the immunity). I'm guessing that some football coach has to think along the same lines, and prefer to expose the whole team "now" as opposed to during the playing season. Of course the down side is we don't know if exposure actually creates immunity. And the public backlash of exposing the whole team would probably get the coach fired.

Bruce

And in those days nobody thought Woody Hayes and Bear Bryant were villains for kicking their players in the ass once in awhile.
 George

   When the NCAA does not sponsor an official championship, it is hardly a legitimate sport but rather a way to attract students.  Bill

We'll let it go here.  I just wanted to share some thoughts on how things are changing.  They were changing even before Covid 19, which wasn't in my vocabulary this time last year.  But if we wish to get back to some very basic values about the relationships we build over a lifetime, I leave you with this description of a longtime friendship between two high school track coaches.  I've dropped their names and focused on the relationship for your reading pleasure.
We'll call one  'E'  and the other is the narrator.  E makes a semi-annual trek to visit the other.

"E. was here six days. I have lived up here for 42 years.  In addition to driving  A round trip is slightly over 1000 miles.  84,000 miles is approximately 3 1/2 times the circumference of the earth.  That said, this was one of our best get-togethers.  We did the requisite back road tour, much of it my mountain bike rides in Mendocino and Lake Counties.  E. walks 8 miles daily, usually in shifts.  Each morning began with a couple hours of hiking the west side of town (which he knows better than I do).  He would start on the track at the junior high and make his way through town to the high school track.  Midday we would take off on our drives.  For the last 10 years I haven't been able to take him anywhere he hasn't been but this year was different.  On his last day I took him up one of the toughest rides I had, a steep climb to the top of the mountains on the other side of the valley.  Steep, rutted and desolate (saw two pickups in an hour).  Like all the dirt roads in the area all the road signs were punctured with bullet holes."

"On the last night he became uncharacteristically sentimental.  He said that of the 50 years he has coached, the best two were '75 and '76 when he was with me at BHS.  (This from a guy who has won five state XC championships.)  He also said that if there was one thing he would like to do more than any other it would be take a run with me, D. and Bob O.  Told him that if there is a heaven, we'd plan one."

"The drives involved a lot of bonding, situations with our significant others, childhoods, reasons why coaching is so important to us, family relationships.  We got deeper into these issues than ever before."

If colleges cancel the sports 2020-21 seasons, will they give current seniors yet another year of eligibility?  Will that mean that incoming freshmen will have to contend with two classes ('20 and '21) for scholarships?  Will the school get to pick and choose to scholarship athletes in six classes, assembling an all-star team?

   The best part of your posting today dealt with the two track coaches who were reminiscing about the years of '75 and '76.  I always like to think of myself as one who lives in the present but as I read that part I could really see their point.

   Bill

George;:  The article is spot on with respect to college athletics.  However, the Covid 19 has exacerbated the situation.   It has been going on for several years.  Athletics at mid-size division I schools, are all trying to mimic the power 5.  The problem is that those mid-size schools have budgets of 25-30 million dollars.   That would have  been great in our day, but they are trying to compete with schools who have 100 - 300 million football budgets.  Not realistic but the story of today.  Joe

Nine who have eligibility are not returning to Oregon

This link indicates that nine seniors with eligibilty are moving on from the U. of Oregon.  This may solve the problem of what to do with incoming freshmen.