The last year has been different than anything anyone living has ever experienced. Coronavirus has turned lives upside down. For months on end, large gatherings were frowned upon, inside or out, and many people have not been able to do things they have been accustomed to doing. Things that were afterthoughts suddenly became luxuries. For many WJ athletes, this meant the elimination of sports. Ever since school was halted and changed to virtual in March of 2020, Montgomery County sports have not been able to go on. Finally, after over a year, select sports will finally get a chance to play again.
Fall and winter sports seasons were postponed until the spring, and the sports that are playing will have a much more condensed schedule than the athletes are used to, but it is better than nothing. The county has also been among the last in the entire country to develop a plan to go back to school, and even then it is extremely limited. All of these factors contribute to a sports environment that has never been seen before and more than likely will never be seen again.
For seniors, this is the last go around. Everyone obviously has it bad, and it is hard to play the “who had it worst” game, but it is really hard not to feel for seniors who won’t get a regular season to cap off their careers. For senior Xavier Melendez, he recognized that everyone went through a hard time and he’s just happy to be out there with his guys, regardless of how restricted it is.
“It’s really this or nothing, and we get that. We get it won’t be the same but we’re just excited to be out here,” Melendez said. This perspective is very popular right now and as much as people want things to go back to normal a lot of people will take anything they can get at this juncture. With vaccines being given out in mass numbers hopefully normalcy will be restored soon.
Melendez’s teammate and fellow senior Zach Wheeden shares a very similar frame of mind. “Many people have it worse than we do, so I’m not going to sit here and complain about what we can’t do soccer-wise, I’m just appreciative of the things we get to do right now,” Wheeden said.