by Emma Pietrocini | October 9, 2020 9:08 am
Stadiums, gyms, and fields stand quiet with parents and siblings scarcely scattered throughout. This is an extremely different kind of Friday night lights. At the beginning of the school year, all students were told that they were not allowed to attend any sporting events due to restrictions with Covid-19. Originally, administration communicated that only parents and siblings were permitted to attend all sporting events.
This was upsetting to students because they were looking forward to supporting Elkhorn sports teams this year. It was especially upsetting for senior students, because they were hoping for a bit of normalcy for their last year at the school. Jack White is one of the seniors that is a part of the group of students that paint for the football team, and he felt this way as well.
“I was most disappointed about not being able to paint and see our boys play” White said.
The senior class was frustrated that they couldn’t attend any fall sports, including football, volleyball, softball, or tennis. However, students were provided with a way to watch most fall sports games on livestream, so plenty of students made an effort to support Elkhorn’s teams from a distance in that way. A few seniors even held tailgates to watch the first few football games together. Senior Colton Uhing is also a painter who was very affected by the restrictions early this year.
“I watched all the games on Strive and organized tailgates for students to be able to watch Friday night football games together,” Uhing said.
After weeks of fall sports competing with no student sections at all, administration made a change to the district’s policy and began to allow a select number of seniors at each game enforcing social distancing, and masks. The decision was to use a raffle system where students that were interested in attending sporting events would put their name in the pool to attend. The students would be chosen at random until they reach the maximum number of seniors allowed at said game. There have not been any students that have been cut off from attending any game yet, as the maximum number of seniors have not signed up for any event so far. The senior class has differing opinions about the choice to use a raffle system.
“I don’t agree that the best way to handle the situation was with a raffle, first come first serve. If I’m on top of my game and sign up quickly and am a painter, I should get into the game,” White said.
“I understand the raffle and that they are trying to get students to go to games in the safest way possible, but the raffle really hasn’t changed anything. To my knowledge no students have been excluded from any events they wanted to attend,” Uhing said.
Overall, the senior class was thankful for the opportunity to finally attend football, volleyball, and softball games.
“I was overjoyed honestly, it was starting to make me mad that there was no way to get at least the seniors into the game,” Uhing said. “My favorite part about going to games has to be painting and getting to live out that part of high school. I watched my older brother and sister both paint and I was really looking forward to that this year”
Although there is now a student section at sports activities, it is much smaller than previous years due to the restriction of only seniors. For the painters, cheerleaders, and dance team, this is an odd feeling.
“The senior section has been really quiet and being spread out, it doesn’t really feel like a real game, but it’s still nice to get out there,” White said.
Despite the extreme differences from previous years, students are not taking the privilege of attending games for granted.
“My mindset from the beginning was to just make the best of it. We can’t control whether the district, conferences, or state decide to let us do so. So when I get the chance to go to games and participate, I definitely try to make it as special as possible,” said Uhing.
This fall sports season, the senior class is dedicated to showing their school spirit no matter the circumstances.
“We want to be heard at them all,” White said.
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