Op-Ed: “Sports will never be the same.”

by Aloysius Jackson 

Many student-athletes, coaches, and sports fans have high hopes that sports will return to normal but that is not realistic. Some coaches may not be returning if they have any underlying medical issues like diabetes, obesity, asthma, etc.

On Friday, May 1, the NCAA released its fall sports plan. They call it the “Core Principles of Resocialization of Collegiate Sport” or the CPRCS, for short.

In the 3 phase fall sports plan, the NCAA is taking many necessary precautions to keep everyone healthy and safe. However, the plan that the NCAA has put together raises a lot of questions and concerns.

In phase one of the plan, the NCAA noted that any “vulnerable student-athletes, athletics health care providers, coaches, and athletics personnel should continue to shelter in place. Vulnerable populations include individuals with serious underlying health conditions such as high blood pressure, chronic lung disease, diabetes, obesity and asthma, and those whose immune system is compromised, such as by chemotherapy.” 

This will affect a team in a negative way if their head coach is not present to teach, mentor, and coach their student-athletes, not because they have the coronavirus, but because they may have high blood pressure. Or the coach may have diabetes, something they have been dealing with for many years without it causing a setback in their coaching career.

Sports will never be the same.

The plan also suggests virtual practices and meetings. This can be a setback in performance for some student-athletes only because they are not going to be able to get the physical reps that they got before the pandemic or the reps they’d like to receive. Sports will be all mental. 

Each of the three phases of the plan lasts 14 days each. Each phase shows a tendency to lighten its strictness as the end of the plan approaches.

For many student-athletes, this fall sports plan will be a challenge of dedication to the sport they claim to love. This is the first time the sports world has gone through a pandemic of this sort. With all the changes that have to be made to the sports world, it’s frustrating at times, sometimes confusing, and even chaotic. 

But there is one thing we can agree on. Sports, as we knew it, will never be the same.