For many PMHS students, the Spring season is the highlight of the year. Athletes spend the off-season training for spring sports like lacrosse, golf, baseball, and tennis. However, to the dismay of many athletes, the spread of the Covid-19 virus has led to cancellations and delays of both school and the Spring sports season.

Due to the highly contagious nature of Covid-19, many popular sporting events have been cancelled to prevent the virus from spreading between athletes, coaches, referees, and spectators. Large-scale events that some athletes look forward to the entire year, such as March Madness, have been cancelled, causing an abrupt end to college seasons. In addition to large sporting events, this virus has also affected high school seasons, causing many of them to be delayed or even cancelled. In addition to just their seasons, many of the teams travel to different states for tournaments. These tournaments are often anticipated for the whole year due to entertaining, bonding and training opportunities they provide as a team for their sport. Many of these trips were cancelled as well.

In response to these delays and cancellations, many athletes have started petitions and have began using the hashtag #LetTheKidsPlay across social media platforms in order to raise awareness and support for their cause. These petitions are gaining support for a number of reasons – Some are attempting to gain an extra eligibility for college seniors, so they can play an extra year, while other petitions are gaining support to convince authorities to postpone Sports seasons rather than cancel them outright.

Thomas Shelton, a member of Pelham’s Varsity Baseball team since his Freshman year, discussed how these cancellations have affected him and the rest of his team.

“The whole team was putting in a lot of work this off-season, training to get faster and stronger. Naturally it was a huge blow to everyone to find out that not only was our trip to Florida cancelled but our entire season might be too,” said Shelton. “We have a really close-knit team of guys and we’re like a family, my heart goes out to the seniors who might not get to play ball anymore.”

Coronavirus has affected many lives already, and cautious and careful behavior has clearly been displayed in order to minimize the impact of this virus through many fronts, including sports.