Over the past few weeks, Agnes Irwin’s fall athletes have had the opportunity to once again compete in their fall sports, participating in practices and games like normal. However, some people haven’t been too happy with the decision Agnes Irwin made of allowing students to play school sports again, calling it “unsafe” and “a decision made way too soon.” As a fall athlete myself, I can also say that while I love getting back on the soccer field with my friends and having a little bit of normalcy, are we really being safe?
I’ve had the opportunity to talk to a few different students, the majority being fall athletes, who I asked for one word they could use to describe how they’re feeling about the fall season. Some of their responses were “nervous,” “upset,” “scared,” “unsure,” and “unwell.” I asked follow-up questions about why they answered with these responses, and their answers were all similar: “because we’re still in the middle of a pandemic.”
These athletes are right: we are still in the middle of the biggest pandemic in our lifetime. Numbers are higher than they have ever been before with the kids starting to go back to school, playing sports again, and hanging out in large groups. However, people have stopped considering this because of all the news surrounding the election. It’s sad that students love their sports so much that they feel as if they have to sacrifice their health and well-being just to play during the season. Other schools in the Inter-Ac league like Penn Charter, Notre Dame, Germantown Academy, and Episcopal Academy have all agreed to play with precaution as well as Agnes Irwin. All the schools except Baldwin have agreed to play this season until Thanksgiving break.
Rumors have gone around the upper school that members of the teams of other schools have confirmed COVID-19 cases, but are still playing. I urge all of you athletes to make sure you are being SAFE while playing during this shortened season. Although I know we all have mixed emotions about the decisions that the school is making and all the different protocols, we will all get through this together. Go Owls!
