DENVER — It's a bittersweet week, as boys golf, boys tennis, softball, and cross-country all get the green light to proceed for fall, but only those four sports. It will be 2021 before we see the rest.
"The key thing I keep telling them is, be flexible and adaptable."
Kent Denver's Kathy James is a staple in the field hockey community, winning her 300th game with the Sun Devils as early as 2018. But as a full-time epidemiologist, her athletes heed her advice.
"You know the big question that I have as an epidemiologist, has very little answers right now because the only way to answer it is time, and that is what are the long-term effects of being exposed and being infected. We just don't know," she said.
James' research expertise is environmental and occupational with a focus of protecting workers and vulnerable populations. At the current moment, she's not sure that there is a right or wrong way to handle scheduling.
"Many of the decision-makers don't have the opportunities to address the details in the time that is needed to be able to do that, and that's why we're seeing postponements to allow for that time," James said. "I'm hesitant to say whether it's right or wrong, and that's why the adaptability is just such an important aspect."
Adaptability will pay dividends for multi-sport athletes, who will be facing some extra overlap with a four-quadrant schedule.
"Wearing both my parent hat and my coaching hat, I have two boys who are both three-sport athletes, and my players are at least two-sport athletes, that's going to be a long January through June," she said. "It's doable, it will be tiring though."
Mullen football head coach Jeremy Bennett had a pretty optimistic view of the postponement, saying he was relieved that they had something concrete to tell their kids. His optimistic view was blurred, however, when it directly affected their futures.
"That's the part that hurts, that's the part that we can't fix. You have to look a senior in the eyes who maybe an FCS school wants to evaluate their first two games and those first two games won't be there by the time they sign," he said. "But we love them up and make sure they know we're working hard for them and we leverage our relationships."
For sports like soccer and volleyball, the club seasons and high school seasons will overlap this year, when they typically work on opposite schedules. Some student-athletes will opt for the club sport route to have better exposure to nationwide scouts. Broomfield soccer head coach Jim Davidson understands that reality.
"We're hoping we'll be able to find some balance where the kids can compete in both the high school realm and the club realm," he said. "But I do believe there are going to be some clubs that force the issue on some kids and make them choose between one and the other and there may be kids in our program that opt for the club."
That's a reigning state championship team that still has a lot of questions about its future, yet one thing remains constant.
"We always value relationships over results and we're going to really need to focus this year on just building relationships," Davidson said.
And each one of these coaches is up for the challenge.
"Life hands us and deals us adversity and it really shows our true character how we push through it and make the best of it," Bennett said.
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