OPINION: 2020: The Year We Played On

Looking back on the year that was in 2020 is an arduous task for many. No matter your industry, gender, race, creed or orientation, this year tested us in ways we could not have imagined when the clock struck midnight on Dec. 31, 2019.

Around mid- to late-March, many of the things we took for granted were either gone, or have looked vastly different since in the days of COVID-19. Many have seen jobs or businesses disappear entirely with no inclination of when they might return. Some have lost a loved one they were unable to see in their final days, or properly comfort those that person may have left behind in the days that have followed. The promise of spring was cut short, giving way to a tumultuous summer and divisive fall.

The world of sports was hardly immune from the challenges of the year, as professional leagues were forced to shut down before being tasked with leading the economic comeback a couple months later. Professional athletes felt the burdens of unrest occurring in their hometowns, and made sacrifices to leave friends and family behind to be with their teams. But still, sports went on to give us hope, to inspire and to give us just a taste of “normal.”

Locally, an entire spring season was cancelled before it started, and it seemed uncertain throughout the summer as to whether sports would come back in the fall. When they did return, fan restrictions and precautionary measures had many events looking a lot different than we had ever seen them before. But still, we played on. To preserve those once-in-a-lifetime experiences, benefit mental health in student-athletes and give us all that taste of “normal.”

A photo from March 12 taken by a colleague that has remained my desktop background since provides perhaps my greatest takeaway from this year. It is an over-the-shoulder wide shot of me, sitting on the baseline at Arcadia’s Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division Three State Semifinal. In the background of the shot is the limited crowd of fans allowed at that game as COVID restrictions began to take shape. For more than 100 days after, that would be my only high school sporting event to cover.

If 2020 taught me anything, it was to not take my health, my job or the people and interactions I get to have in this profession for granted. It can all disappear in an instant. As we continue to take steps toward that ever so elusive “back to normal” I am thankful for every day we’ve been able to play on.