During this global pandemic, many students have decided to still participate in sports. There is a multitude of reasons for this, including: they need to play for scholarship opportunities, their parents have forced them, they simply just want to play for fun, they can’t afford to stop conditioning, or they have played a certain sport for so long that they simply can’t imagine not playing it. Whatever the reason, there is still the issue of safety at hand. With that in mind, do students feel safe playing sports?

In order to find the answer to this question, I put out asked around on instagram to see what some of the LMHS athletes had to say. Overall, more students said yes than no. Some of the reasons students said yes was because they practiced outside or the sport had a spread out setup. One of the students ran track, so she usually practices outside, in which there is less of a chance the germs will spread. The other one played baseball and felt that because the sport was spread out it was more safe because players do not have to be super close together for the majority of the game. Jackson Ryan, a senior on the varsity football team, says that he feels safe because his team “takes the right precautions at practice and the coaches have to wear a face mask”.

Some students feel that the consequences could be worse if they don’t play the sports. Aiden Hammock, who is also a senior on the varsity football team, says that “the chances I have of contracting the virus pale in comparison to the mental affect it would have on me if I couldn’t play”. It is very likely that many other students feel the same way. So many student’s lives have revolved around school sports to it would be feel abnormal and saddening if they abruptly stopped playing. Other students don’t feel COVID 19 is the biggest risk when playing. Senior Faith Moon, who is on the weightlifting and lacrosse team, says “if I survive spraining my back I’ll survive this”. Some students are more concerned about health concerns such as injuries rather than contracting COVID 19.

Although some students felt otherwise. For multiple students, it wasn’t the safety of their own school that concerned them, but rather that of the team they were competing against. It is easier to regulate your school’s safety measures and keep record of who has been sick or who has been in contact with someone who has. This information is not known about the other team, so some students feel more at risk when playing against these people, especially when they have to play a sport in which there is constant contact.

Each individual has different reasoning and motivation behind participating in a sport, but only time will tell if they will be able to continue playing.