Ten Days, Ten Things No.9

Sports weren't cancelled.

My son stays pretty busy participating in youth sports - football, basketball, and baseball. I also stay pretty busy helping coach all of those teams. I'm confident that he loves it; I know that I do.

We were finishing up our winter workouts for his baseball team and gearing-up to start the season when the pandemic hit. Like most things, our baseball season hit pause. We were unsure if there would be a baseball season. I doubted that it would happen. And as March turned to April and then April turned to May, it was becoming clear that my son was missing sports. Beyond the character traits and work habits that sports build, they also serve as physical, social, and mental outlets for the kids that participate.

Fortunately, in June, his baseball season started. And other than the delayed start, we were able to play the entire season without any problems. It was the first glimpse that we had of a return to normal, and it was great. Soon after the baseball season ended, we started flag football. We were also able to play the entire flag football season without any issues. Basketball hasn't been so seamless; there have been many bumps in the road (finding gym space where we are able to practice, having a deep enough rotation of players for games and tournaments, our Governor hitting the pause button on all youth athletics). Nonetheless, we're still playing basketball; it's been different, but we're playing.

This is the ninth of ten days where I'm going to share one positive experience that I've had over the course of the year (2020). This year has been hard, no doubt, but it hasn't all been gloom and doom. There have been highlights. And when you are looking for positives, you start to find more of them.