Due to COVID-19, no one has been able to play their sport wearing a Roosevelt jersey this year. Nonetheless, some students have continued to play. A recreational flag football team has been created by Roosevelt students. Games have been played, but have masks been worn?
Participant and junior Mark Padgett answers the mask question: “If you were on the field you might pull them down while you’re out there, but if you’re not in the game or anything then you’re wearing a mask.” The teams were made up of mostly Roosevelt students, although the school was not affiliated with this league according to their Instagram bio.
The league is played every year during football season, generally run by Roosevelt seniors. Padgett states that there were more friends and athletes who wanted to join this year due to COVID-19 shutting down in-person school and sports. The league had six teams with about seven people per team. Each team had a senior captain who drafted their team.
Padgett states that the teams, “Started off with one game a week, whenever the guys could play, and then it slowly changed into two to three times a week.” Their league lasted three months, starting in September and ending in November. The league gave athletes a chance of socialization and competition that they once had before COVID-19 restrictions. Playing together was an escape from their new reality of quarantine.
Roosevelt sports have been continuously pushed back this year due to COVID-19. There has not been a single competition played against another school, and practices are stalled. In an interview, Athletic Director Ryan Sherlock said that student-athletes were being negatively affected from the lack of athletics provided this year. Many students use sports as a motivator or way to de-stress and forget about other stresses of life. Once COVID-19 hit, that source of relief was stripped of all athletes. This flag football team was a way for kids to have a little taste of that old life back.
While football guys are thrilled to have an outlet, the rest of the Roosevelt students are left to continue their social distancing practices. Many student athletes and people around the neighborhood use the field that this flag football team occasionally plays on. Junior Myles Mawa states, “They’re spreading germs in that area, and I’m close to that area and then also people that don’t even go to the school walk on the football field all the time. They touch all the stuff that the football boys have touched, so it’s just concerning for the community that also shares the field.”
Roosevelt sports are not currently practicing, so all teams or practices are instructed by the kids themselves. It’s up to the students and people in our community to take caution with the coronavirus in order to create a safe environment for everyone.
