Winter sports are what?!

We just finished the second unit of our humanities course, Rhetoric, and we went through a lot of material. We started talking about the ways to express interest in a topic while keeping it precise and simple; how to deliver information. That's where the lesson of an Op-ed came into play. An Op-ed is a short report on any timely topic that is likely to catch attention. The purpose is to provoke a fresh perspective on the topic, for any new and interested readers. if you wanted to organize a protest you would start off by rounding people up and identifying a common interest to get them willing to participate. Details and logistics would come later, but initially, you would just want their attention while you give them basic insight. For this project, we were tasked with writing an Op-ed on a timely topic while using some of the conversational and rhetorical strategies we talked about in class. I decided to write mine on a less serious topic because I think that with all the craziness going on, people could use a break from the gloom and doom, while still staying down to earth. My Op-ed is on the winter sports' season and how it can be executed safely with the bondage of COVID. In this Op-ed logos is used to bring about the most reasonable justification for winter sports to commence. Pathos is used to reach to your empathetic side and put yourself in the shoes of these disappointed athletes. And lastly, ethos is used in the beginning to ensure that I, as a high school teenager, am qualified to give you this information. See the short report attached below.

    Whether you play sports or love to go to the games and support your high school team, I think we can all agree that sports were one of the smaller things that had us all somewhat enjoying our high school experience. They made us feel good about our school having a good team, and got us excited about staying late after school to watch our friends. Sports were just an overall amazing activity that schools had to offer, and then COVID came around. Schools shut down and converted to online learning, and sports teams were unavailable as well. For a while there, things seemed grim, but later on, in the year the number of covid cases was down and the outdoors were becoming available. Some restaurants opened back up for business, many facilities were becoming available and sports programs were starting back up for tryouts. Sure enough, it was too good to be true.

    Earlier last week Governor, J.B. Pritzker, and the Illinois department of public health decided to put winter sports and basketball into a high-risk category; ultimately putting the season on hold. The cases of positive COVID-19 tests are at a high right now, so it makes sense that this would happen which is disappointing from a general perspective, but there was also some very good news that was released as well. The executive director of the IHSA (Illinois high school association), Craig Anderson, goes on to say, “We remain considerate of the recent rise in positive COVID-19 cases in our state. However, in our meeting with IDPH on Friday (October 23), we felt that we presented multiple options that would allow for basketball to be conducted safely by IHSA schools this winter…” Although he mentioned that basketball could be handled safely, the fact remains that basketball has moved from a medium risk category to a high-risk category. This doesn’t raise concerns for the season’s validity, but rather for the safety of its players. Basketball requires a violation of the 6 feet policy that COVID demands as well as the absence of masks therefore making it questionable for our circumstance.

    Another issue that this raises is the concern for sports scholarships. Lots of high school players get scouted from different colleges and amateur programs but with the expansion of COVID and its effect on the winter sport’s season, players may not be eligible or scouted for these scholarship opportunities. According to a somewhat recent article on College finance.com, there was an eligibility extension given to student-athletes who were affected during the spring season, but the eligibility will not extend to athletes affected during the winter season. Basically, this means that for now, players who were in line for a scholarship that weren’t playing in the spring for any reason, won’t get one. The article did state that, that may change depending on how college sports react or adapt to COVID.

    All in all, COVID sucks. It took away school, extra-curricular activities, recreational activities, and even affected our academic opportunities. In my eyes, winter sports should commence. They could be handled safely just how the NBA handled it, with their idea of the bubble. Stay 6 feet apart on the bench, masks during games, and quarantine in between games. I feel that this a completely viable option that is not being discussed. Sure it would take a little more money out of the budget for sports programs, but school funds always go to other things that no one ever knows about. In my opinion, there is plenty of money that could be used for sports programs to operate this way. But for now, I guess they want to take the cheap way out and let COVID win.

    You should, in no way, let the safety concerns of the execution of the winter sports season discourage you from participating. This is quite the exciting bit of news that was given, but we shouldn’t get so excited that we become oblivious to what’s necessary for our survival during this pandemic. The numbers are rising but we can still play safely. Sports haven’t been available for us to participate in for quite some time now, but now they seem to be coming back. So get hype and play hard, just not too hard.

Because my Op-ed was written on a topic like highschool sports affected by COVID, I think that it could be picked up by a major publication like the Chicago Tribune. At face value, this would be a story about how irritated people are about winter sports being canceled, but if you take a closer look, you begin to see the importance of this topic. Winter sports were an amazing morale booster, as well as most high school students' ticket to a brighter future. Now that they're gone, this could cause a serious blow in this country's academic statistics. If you ask me, that's worthy of a publication as big as the Chicago tribune.

Work Cited:

Collins, Joe. “Gov. J.B. Pritzker, IDPH Place High School Basketball, Other Sports on Hold.” NBC Chicago, NBC Chicago, 27 Oct. 2020, www.nbcchicago.com/news/sports/nbcsports/gov-j-b-pritzker-idph-place-high-school-basketball-other-sports-on-hold/2360094/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2020.

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“Student-Athlete Scholarships During COVID-19 (Current and Future) - College Finance.” College Finance, 3 Sept. 2020, collegefinance.com/athletic-scholarship/student-athlete-scholarships-during-covid-19-current-and-future. Accessed 9 Nov. 2020.

“College Basketball Oversight Committees Update Plans to Propose Nov. 21 Start Date for 2020-21 Season.” CBSSports.com, 12 Sept. 2020, www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/college-basketball-oversight-committees-update-plans-to-propose-nov-21-start-date-for-2020-21-season/. Accessed 10 Nov. 2020.

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