It seemed like each hour brought more bad news.
My birthday was Wednesday (March 11) and after spending a carefree day with my wife and enjoying delicious food at nearby restaurants, I turned on the TV that night to watch various college basketball tournaments and the late Blues game in Anaheim.
Then, the news started coming.
First, the NBA announced it was putting its season on hold as fans filed into arenas to watch games that night. I flipped around to the other smaller-conference basketball tournaments, where fans were still allowed to attend. Then at 9 p.m. I turned on the Blues game. I watched the whole game thinking this might be the last time I see the Stanley Cup champions play this year. What would it mean if the NHL didn’t complete the 2019-2020 season? One friend wondered if the Blues would automatically repeat (uh, no) and St. Louis would get to hold another beer-soaked parade (again, no).
When I got to the Leader office in Festus Thursday morning, the bad news was gathering like storm clouds over a prairie. It’s hard to keep what happened in order, but by the end of the day, the entire sports landscape was barren.
Around noon, the NHL announced it was suspending games for the foreseeable future. The league’s two most recent Stanley Cup finals participants, the Blues and Boston Bruins, are locked in place as the top seeds in their respective conferences. Then, in short order Thursday, the NCAA said it was canceling the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament and ending participation in all winter and spring sports for the rest of the school year. Major League Baseball canceled spring training and pushed the start of its season back weeks.
After taking all of this in, the Missouri State High School Activities Association sent out a statement saying it was restricting who could attend the Show-Me Showdown basketball tournament in Springfield for Classes 1-3. MSHSAA handed out 150 wristbands to each of the schools participating in the state event. Down Hwy. A from the Leader office, Jefferson College was scheduled to hold the Class 4 boys and girls quarterfinals at its Hillsboro campus with restrictions for all but “essential personnel.” I arrived there Saturday at 11:30 a.m. to find the field house dark and locked. Later I found out the games had been moved to Perryville.
The finals of the Class 4 and 5 tournaments later were canceled.
This was becoming too much to absorb. I’m a sports fanatic – obviously, look at what I’ve been doing for a living for the better part of three decades. And it doesn’t end when I get off work. My evenings usually revolve around me standing at the counter in my kitchen and watching my 65-inch 4K television. I knew my obsession for all things sports had reached its zenith when I was writing headlines for my own enjoyment as I watched Central Florida beat Cincinnati in a men’s college basketball game last month.
Without sports, how could I feed the monkey?
The only other time I can compare this dearth of sporting events can be traced back to Sept. 11, 2001. The terrorists attacked us on a Tuesday. It brought aviation and most large events to a standstill for more than a week.
But in St. Charles, where I was in charge of three other reporters and a photo staff for another newspaper, local high schools decided to play football that Friday night, three days after the attacks that brought down the World Trade Center towers, a plane over a field in Shanksville, Pa., and burrowed a hole in the Pentagon.
A week later, I was covering a football game at Duchesne High. The inbound flights to St. Louis Lambert International Airport made their approaches over the small Catholic high school. The game stopped for a moment as a plane made its final approach.
While 9-11 caught us all off guard, the COVID-19 pandemic has been stalking the U.S. and large events for weeks. It was just a matter of time. Following 9-11, Americans were told to go about their daily lives. Now, our daily routines can be quarantined and disrupted at a moment’s notice. If you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, you might not be able to go home for weeks.
As I write this, days before deadline, I’m certain the narrative will change before it’s due for editing on Sunday afternoon. That’s been the nature of the local, state and the federal government’s reaction to fighting this largely unknown virus.
As of Monday (March 16) morning, prep spring sports in Missouri haven’t been canceled, but all activities in county schools have been suspended until at least April 6.
Class and district assignments were released Friday morning.
I’m preparing the first round of spring previews – girls soccer – for this week’s paper not knowing if those athletes will even get to play a game this year. We’re all in uncharted territory now. I’m hoping this won’t be Jefferson County sports’ first silent spring.
