Save Our Sports: The Student Effort to Get the Fall Season Back
Read about the effort of the Save Our Sports student group to save the Fall Season!
Due to COVID-19, sports seasons such as volleyball, soccer, field hockey, and doubles for tennis had previously been canceled. When they stated these sports seasons had been canceled, many students were very confused. The students had felt that soccer, field hockey, and doubles in tennis were unfairly canceled.
Most districts around Sweet Home still had all of their sports seasons (besides volleyball) scheduled to begin within the next few weeks. Players were very confused about why Sweet Home had decided to cancel these seasons, and some of the students decided to speak up. They spoke up by signing an online petition that had been spread around on social media, which had gained 400+ signatures in a matter of days. Students began notifying their peers about what was going on and how they wanted to change the situation.
Players put together a video that was featured on the Sweet Home High School morning announcements that showcased student athletes in order to inform people further about the cause. Four students; Zora Flash, Jacob Wilson, Jasim Qasim and Jacob Korte organized a meeting with the superintendent, Mr. Day and athletic director, Ms. Daria. The meeting discussed why they wanted their seasons back and explaining how they could adjust to the virus in order to ensure safety during the seasons. After the meeting, Mr. Day had agreed with their idea. He offered the students to present the idea at the board meeting that took place on Monday in order for them to possibly sway the board into having these seasons. In the next couple of days, the Save Our Sports twitter page had also gotten lots of attention and Channel 7 news reached out and asked them for an interview about everything going on.
After the four students had been interviewed on the news, it became even harder for the board to ignore the issue. At this point, the word had spread to many people about sports cancellation and the board decided to vote in order to settle the conflict. In the end, the board had voted to reconsider the decision they made to cancel sports seasons and decided to put them back into place.
Olivia is in her senior year at Sweet Home High School. Her writing will focus primarily around sports in the Sweet Home community.
