By RICHIE HALL
Remember the good old days?
I remember being up at The Mill at Noblesville High School, standing up on the second level at one of the two overlooks on the east side of the gym, directly above the entrance. The radio and television people set up shop there whenever they come to cover a game. I wound up sitting next to a group of Carmel High School students who were there from the school’s radio station, WHJE.
It was the second boys basketball sectional semi-final game of the night between Noblesville and Carmel. During the game, my old friend Joe Burgess came up to say hello. He wound up taking a selfie with me and posted it on Twitter – it’s the same photo you see on the page today.
The game was your typical Millers-Greyhounds battle to the end. Carmel won on a last-second shot after being down with about a minute to go. It was thrilling, although I have to admit that covering games between two county schools is never easy. I’m happy for the winning team, and simultaneously feel bad for the other team.
Overall, it was a sectional game to remember. The good old days. Now you might be thinking “Wait a minute, what do you mean the ‘good old days?’” After all, that sectional game took place nine days ago – last Friday, March 6.
Because after the events of this past week, nine days ago seems like forever.
DOMINO EFFECT
Nine days ago, we all had been hearing about the coronavirus, or COVID-19, for the past few weeks. While it was something to be aware of, it didn’t seem like something that would disrupt everyday life.
Then it started getting serious. Avon Community School Corporation had a student test positive, and quickly announced all schools would close. On Monday, Kent Graham and I were talking about what that would mean for an indoor track and field meet scheduled for Friday that was to be hosted by Avon High School. And would Avon’s closure cause a domino effect across other schools?
Indeed, the dominoes started dropping from there. College basketball conference tournaments would no longer allow fans at the games. Soon they would be canceled altogether. Then came Wednesday, when an NBA player tested positive for the coronavirus. Within hours, the NBA season was suspended. Other major sport leagues quickly followed suit.
Kent and I were preparing to head to Logansport on Saturday to cover Carmel in the boys basketball regional. The IHSAA said on Thursday that it would conduct games with limited fans, but that soon became unfeasible as school districts across the state, including all of Hamilton County’s districts, announced they were shutting down and moving to e-learning. On Friday, the basketball tournament was postponed.
The only high school sporting event to take place Saturday was the IHSAA gymnastics state finals at Ball State University. Those girls participated at state in front of an empty Worthen Arena, as no spectators were allowed. Chesterton won the meet, its third straight state championship in gymnastics and sixth overall.
Spring sports are delayed here in Hamilton County with the closure of the schools, most of which are scheduled to be closed until the week of April 13. (Guerin Catholic is set to re-open the week of April 6, according to the calendar on the school’s website.) It will be, at the very least, early to mid April before practices can begin, and several days after that before actual games and meets can be scheduled.
THINGS ARE DIFFERENT NOW
I do agree with the need to close schools. School systems are not just expected to educate our children, they also are expected to protect them and look out for their best interests, even if that means shutting the schools down.
To some people all the shutdowns – not just of schools, but of sports, museums, other public places – may seem like an overreaction. Possibly. But Allison Carter of the Indianapolis Star said it best in a tweet: “We will never know if we overreacted to the coronavirus. We will only know if we underreacted.”
You can still think everyone is overreacting if you want. But here’s the bottom line: Things are different now, much different from nine days ago, whether you like it or not. Terms like “social distancing” and “flattening the curve” were word salad on March 6, but they are in our lexicon as of March 15. Now we must decide how we’re going to react to this situation and weather it with as little damage as possible, because we don’t have much of a choice.
As a sports journalist, it’s my job to report on sports, and that means to sometimes view situations like this through the lens of athletics. It does seem a little frivolous to be talking about sports at a time like this. It’s awful to watch what’s happening across the country and around the world as well, especially in Italy, as the coronavirus takes its toll.
Those of us in the sports world, especially high school sports, have been confronted with quite a bit of disruption over the past week, as is the case with much of everyday life around the world. During the school year, everything is pretty much planned out. Conference meets on this day, sectionals on that day, and if our teams advance, regionals are here on this day. Now, that’s all out the window for the foreseeable future.
STORIES TO TELL
People have asked me, “What are you going to write about?” Well, there are always feature stories. Fortunately, there are many stories to tell in an athletics-crazy county such as Hamilton. Don’t be surprised if you’re an athlete who graduated from a local school, is competing in college sports, and you get an email from me during the next several days. You might have a good story to tell, and I’d be happy to tell it.
Also, if anyone out there has a good idea for a feature story, my email is always open. You can always reach me by email: rhall1977@gmail.com. Let me know your ideas. It can be anything sports-related. I’ve written stories on everything from baton twirling to synchronized swimming.
Of course, I’ll make sure to keep you updated with spring schedule adjustments. And when we finally do get going with the spring sports season – and we will – I will be there to cover all the events again. I’m just as ready as everyone else to get outside and enjoy the spring.
But for now, we’ll have to be patient. The best we can do is stay safe, use common sense when it comes to going out, wash our hands, have faith and work together. A year from now, we can all look back and wonder if we overreacted to the coronavirus, but something tells me that if we do our part to keep it as much under control as possible, we will be glad we overreacted like we did.
Noblesville teacher Butch Robbins leads the Millers student section in the roller coaster cheer during the Noblesville-Carmel boys basketball sectional game last Friday, March 6. The landscape of the sports world would change dramatically within the next seven days, as the coronavirus crisis caused the suspension of athletics at the professional, college and high school levels. (Kent Graham)