A Season in Doubt

The tracks, once streaming with athletes, are empty.

There’s no thump of tennis balls on courts.

Soccer goals sit listless on an empty pitch.

A spring sports season that started with promise on Feb. 17 with the start of practices came to a screeching halt 28 days later in the midst of a global pandemic the likes of which this country hasn’t seen for a century.

COVID-19 has changed everything this spring.    

The virus’ quick spread and lack of a viable vaccine has essentially closed much of the U.S. since mid-March. Mills County had its first reported case last week. The virus has killed more than 10,000 nationally.

From school and business closures to social distancing, COVID-19 has decimated everyday life through cancellations and quarantines aimed at preventing the virus’s spread.

Spring sports for hundreds of high school athletes is just one casualty of the virus that has brought much of the country to a standstill.

On March 15, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds suspended schools in the state and with it, all school related activities including sports practices and competitions until at least April 13. Last week, the governor extended that closure to April 30.
With a mid-April return to school, many coaches targeted a compressed Spring sports season kicking off competition perhaps in late April.

That hope seemed to dissipate with the latest closure extension.

The resulting holding pattern for coaches and athletes has many wondering if there will be a Spring sports season at all.

Nebraska, last week, announced it is closing its schools for the remainder of the school year. With that, the Nebraska State Activities Association cancelled the Spring sports season and post-season in the state.

It might be more a question of when than if Iowa follows suit.

“A lot depends on what the governor decides,” said Mark Starner, Glenwood boys track coach. “I can tell you the state athletic organizations, boys and girls, are discussing options and they’re planning to do everything they can to try and have a spring sports season of some kind.”

What that sports season might look like – either abbreviated, pushed back into the summer or both – is anyone’s guess right now.

“The Drake Relays has postponed but they haven’t cancelled yet,” Starner said. “They’re waiting just like the rest of us to see what the plan is. We’re all trying to be cautiously optimistic. We don’t want anything to happen to anyone but we’re holding out hope there will be a chance for a season.”

“We want to keep what’s best for our kids in mind. But we want to do whatever possible to try and get something in.”
The Glenwood girls track team is the defending state champion. No Spring sports season means there will be no defending their title.

For a large, hyper-competitive group of athletes, said head coach Cory Faust, that’s a hard pill to swallow.

“I’m hopeful,” Faust said. “I’m holding out hope we’ll be able to do something, even if it’s very reduced or we have to extend some things into the summer. Obviously, I feel like we have so much talent and good athletes, I’d love to see what we could accomplish. But more than that just to be able to get the experience to compete, especially for their hometown, it’s a big deal for them. Hopefully these seniors get a chance to do that.”

For dozens of senior athletes locally, this Spring could be a lost season. No track, no soccer, no golf and no tennis. And while no official decision has been made, prom and commencement ceremonies are likely to be added to that list.
Jaeda Wilson, a track athlete at Glenwood, is one of those seniors.

“It’s been kind of hard getting used to not having a routine because I’m involved in so many other things thatn track,” said Wilson, who in addition to being ranked No. 1 in her class is also involved in mock trial, show choir, choir and band. “I’ve been training pretty consistently and trying to make do with cardio, ‘Insanity’ type workouts and stairs in my house and running around town. But it’s not easy.”

Wilson has struggled to maintain her “racing mentality” with the lingering doubt. The moments she found out school was being suspended and with it her senior season still “doesn’t seem real.”

The message most coaches have related to their athletes throughout the last three weeks has been consistently optimistic: stay safe, stay in shape, there’s always a chance.

“It may seem like doom and gloom but follow the guidelines and stay in shape,” Starner said.

Starner has 80 athletes out this season. He’s communicated through email and texts, relaying workouts and tips but hasn’t spoken to his team since March 16.

That was also the last time Claude Lang, East Mills boys track coach, talked to his team. The coach had little time to process the potential for missing the season at the time. He sent each athlete home with a workout plan and advice to stay in shape.
“I told them all it wasn’t mandatory and not to be in groups bigger than four or five people,” Lang said. “I wanted them to do something in case there is a chance of having a season.”

Lang left some track equipment out at the East Mills track for just that possibility. He feels like the chances of competing this season are fifty-fifty but his optimism might be shrinking daily.

Starner admitted he cruised by the activities complex a couple times a week to check if athletes are there working out and minding social distancing guidelines.

The Glenwood Community School District Activities Complex closed yesterday for contractors to do planned concrete work at the site.

The closure means Glenwood athletes will no longer be able to use the facility for training individually or in small groups.

Like most coaches, Glenwood boys soccer coach Cort Lovato is preparing as if there will be a season. He and his staff have already designed a two-week training schedule and plan to get up to speed quickly if the season is a go.

“It’s hard not to see the kids every day,” said Lovato, who had his players download an app with player focused drills and skill challenges to stay in shape.

With the school closure date pushed back to April 30, Lovato has his doubts any Spring sport will compete this year, let alone soccer.

“That puts us into the middle of May for our first match and substate starts May 21,” Lovato said. “Unless they push the season back into the summer, I don’t see how it works. And if they do that, then you’re losing guys to baseball. We have four or five guys who play baseball and I can’t ask them to play soccer for us in baseball season. It’s a hairy situation.”

For Glenwood soccer forward John Palmer that means no chance for his team to build on the promise of this year’s 7-11 campaign in which the Rams lost several closes matches or his own pursuit of school records. With 11 goals Palmer would finish his career in the top four all time at Glenwood.

“Personally, you think your senior season is going be your best season after all the work you put in and it’s taken away,” Palmer said. “You find other things to look forward to but we had a lot of up and coming kids who aren’t going to get a chance. We thought we were going to be pretty good this year.”

Starner said the state’s two athletic associations, the Iowa High School Athletic Association and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, have asked coaches how much time they would need to ramp up in their particular sports to determine how many competitions could be completed prior to a post-season.

In track, Starner said, the idea of having just a state qualifying meet and then the state meet has been discussed.

“Our thought process has been: one meet is better than none,” Starner said. “You look at the seniors here who have gone through a season of just waiting, whether that be track or golf or soccer, and you see this senior class will lose a lot and you have to feel for them.”

That prospect is hard for a senior track athlete like Sam McIntyre. Glenwood didn’t have a track last season. They trained in parking lots, hallways and gymnasiums all last Spring during construction on the new athletic complex.

It’s crossed McIntyre’s mind more than once he’s ran his last race in a Ram uniform.

“I try not to think about what could be but it is disappointing,” said McIntyre, a cross country state qualifier in the Fall. “Last year’s seniors didn’t even get to run on the track and that was terrible for them. And then this year we don’t even get to run at all. It’s crazy and disappointing to think about but hopefully we can still do something this year.”

The hedging uncertainty is perhaps the toughest opponent for that hope. The simple fact is, athlete and coach alike, don’t know what the next few weeks will hold.

“I think the kids are optimistic but it’s hard not to doubt with every other state shutting down their activities,” Starner said.
“One game would be nice, to be honest,” Palmer said. “But in all reality, it’s probably not going to happen. I’ve accepted it and I think a lot of other people have too. It’s hard but you get over it the longer the longer this goes.”

Starner thinks its “possible” to still have some semblance of a sports season even if school is cancelled for the rest of the year.

“They’re going to do everything they possible can, within reason, to have state championships this spring season,” Starner said. “They said they’re dedicated to doing that but so much is up in the air right now.”