After the latest meeting Tuesday, GMC associate commissioner Stu Eversole had no indication anything was changing for one of its member schools. By Thursday, Middletown City Schools had suspended fall sports and other activities.
Now, Eversole is hoping – like Middletown High School and everyone else – the suspension truly is just a temporary pause. The GMC plans to move forward with the fall sports season, as long as the Ohio High School Athletics Association continues to allow it, but some of the schools in the conference already are scrambling to replace games in their fall sports schedules after the Greater Western Ohio Conference eliminated non-conference games for this season.
“As we’re getting into the fall, we’ve decided we are not going to go conference-only,” Eversole said. “We are impacted by other conferences doing that. Mason has lost two games to the GWOC and other conference members have been impacted as well. We’re scrambling a bit. Holes created by Middletown, everyone hopes the suspension is just a suspension of activities and maybe they straighten things out and they will resume. We have an AD meeting Tuesday face-to-face, and I’m sure that will be one of the topics of discussion.”
The suspension of sports wasn’t a complete surprise to everyone, though.
Volleyball player Jetxairy Benitez, a senior defensive specialist and outside hitter, said when Middletown announced on July 20 the district would be starting the school year remotely, it seemed inevitable something would change with sports and activities.
Benitez said the volleyball team began conditioning in early July, and the Middies were looking forward to the official start of practices Saturday – when all fall sports were allowed to begin. Instead, Middletown fall-sports athletes were limited to virtual team meetings Saturday, while others held in-person activities such as Lakota West cross country team’s midnight Lap-A-Thon to kick things off for the fall season.
“Having to start school remotely, I figured they were going to say something about sports as well,” Benitez said. “The plan for now is to continue to do workouts at home and hopefully get back together soon. I’m a little worried, but I think this will go by and we’ll get going again. We’re just staying positive throughout, and hopefully by following protocols and staying safe, I think we can get back.”
Josh Bryant, a senior running back and strong safety on the Middies’ football team, is trying to stay positive as well but admitted he is a little nervous that this could just be the first step toward another canceled season like the spring sports.
Middletown hasn’t experienced a winning season in football since 2011, and the Middies could use as much time together on the field as possible, Bryant said. He understands the safety reasons behind the decision to suspend sports, but it’s hard stepping back while other schools are able to continue practicing.
“We weren’t where we wanted to be,” Bryant said of how the team has looked since beginning offseason workouts June 1. “We looked good but I think it’s going to set us back a little. If we come back I think everyone will be on point, be on track and we’ll keep getting better everyday because everyone wants it.
“I’d be kind of mad if we don’t have season. This is the year we were going to turn everything around. Everyone wants it, even the young dudes, so this is the team to do it.”
Fall scrimmages already have been canceled by the OHSAA, but Eversole said that likely was a measure to follow the NFL’s lead in lengthening the time teams have together before going out and interacting with other schools. Eversole said another challenge is “the great divide between contact and non-contact sports.” Golf, tennis and volleyball have been approved by Governor Mike DeWine to hold contests between schools, while cross country, soccer and football – where social distancing is more difficult – await that approval.
Eversole said he is hoping the state’s mask mandate helps slow the spread of COVID-19 and that impact starts to show in the next two weeks. The GMC athletic directors have a comprehensive plan for game operations and how to hold events in the safest way possible for the students, coaches, officials and others. The group meets again Tuesday.
“Our ADs took the social distancing and safety protocol procedures laid out by the state and have put together an incredible plan that details everything from workers to concessions, to home teams, visiting teams,” Eversole said. “It was the most comprehensive document I’ve read. They dotted every ‘i,’ and they submitted this to our superintendents. This has been a historic sequence of events, talking through athletics and trying to arrive at a logical sequence of events as far as how we can have events. I’m cautiously optimistic that we are proceeding down a path that will let us play.”
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