AD's (Woltman, Ohnesorge) Talk About Spring Sports Season

Thanks to our area athletic directors. I reached out to them to see how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the way they've faced the spring sports season

During the spring, junior high school and high school sports could include baseball, softball, track and boys tennis. As noted on our website, I had already typed all the area high school and junior high schedules day-by-day. Our area includes, Effingham, Effingham St. Anthony, Altamont, Brownstown/St. Elmo, Cowden-Herrick/Beecher City, Cumberland, Dieterich, Neoga, Newton, Stewardson-Strasburg, South Central, Teutopolis and Windsor.

I sent an email and hopefully, all the A.D.'s received it, asking five questions and those included:

1. What all did you have to do at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, such as canceling games, umps, etc.?

2. Did you think it would go on this long?

3. What have you found has been the hardest part of your job over this?

4. What are you doing to pass the time, projects, family time, etc.?

5. Any words of wisdom for your student/athletes?

I have received many replies from the athletic directors, so each day I will put several of them with their answers online. If I haven't gotten in touch with these AD's, please forgive me. I will do my best to get in touch with them and I know they will respond because our area A.D.'s are an awesome bunch of folks that do so much behind the scenes for student/athletes.

Today's athletic directors include Dave Woltman (Effingham) and Donetta Ohnesorge (Dieterich).

DAVE WOLTMAN (EFFINGHAM)

1. This is really similar to when we cancel for weather matters but on a greater scale. Contacting officials, opponents, transportation, workers, etc. The hardest part is not knowing what the immediate future holds and if there is any chance of coming back to school this year.

2. I am sad that this has gone on as long as it has.  I truly feel for the students who are being effected by this situation.  At some point, hopefully we can find normalcy in the near future, but it seems that this will be a slow process.  

3. The hardest part of this for me is seeing the effect it is having on our students. It does not seem fair, but hopefully the kids can find some growth in this situation. Sometimes life is unfair and unjust, but this is now our new reality. We are all struggling with the situation. In the end, hopefully we can all grow from this by having a greater appreciation for our opportunities when they are available.

4. There is still plenty to do now including planning for potential events for the remainder of this year, and into the following years. Some other items include interviews, summer camps and physicals, sports requisitions, and summer project planning. I have been spending my free time with my family.  We have been enjoying each others company with any activity we can do together. Whether it has been work or play, I appreciate being together with them. We have been doing work around the house, my daughters property, and my mom's lake house. The fun things we are doing include fishing, puzzles, games, movies and making family meals. I've also been helping with the Unit 40 lunch program.

5. Try not to allow this circumstance to become an excuse. Turn this difficult situation into an opportunity for growth.  Allow yourself to be more self-motivated, have greater determination, self awareness while pushing yourself to become the best person you can be despite all that is going on in your community and around the world .

DONETTA OHNESORGE (DIETERICH)

1. I was in communication with my principal on how long things would be closed. With the closing of all schools, it was obvious that we would not be playing games but yet I reached out to schools and umpires that we would not be able to play. Typically, at this time of year we are waiting to see if the weather causes us to cancel games, and if so, we work on rescheduling or trying to find a bus and possibly move the location of a game, so this is totally different than what I have ever done before.

2. I never dreamed that it would come to this. I sometimes feel like I am dreaming and this will be just my imagination but yet I know that it is not a dream but reality and I don’t know how much longer this is going to be going on.

3. The hardest part of this is knowing how disappointing this is to our athletes, coaches, fans, and umpires. There is so much preparation that coaches and players prepare for leaving the previous season with intentions of making the next season better. However, because of the COVID-19 outbreak this has not been able to happen.  I feel sorry for every student from the senior looking at this being their last high school experience to the freshman who was trying to possibly earn a spot on a varsity team.  The coaches who work from one season to the next to get ready to make the most of their players and the fans and umpires who also look forward to what the season holds.

4. I am spending time working with requisitions, camp things, google calendar, answering texts and emails and learning remote learning and how to social distance with others. My husband is still working so he is gone throughout the week. My girls and myself have been working on homework and we have been enjoying spending time outside with the warmer temperatures but have been doing a lot of indoor activities and things that we would not have been able to do and get done unless being at home these additional hours with our busy schedules.

5. As a coach for many years, I had athletes who had injuries that kept them from coming back to play for me and typically they would say I wish that I would be able to do things again. Those athletes taught me the lesson to consider every practice/game like it might be their last and not to be disappointed or regret how things go. Typically, I think most players think that games are more important than practice and practice is more important than not playing a sport but we have to think that staying at home is more important than all of this because the lives and safety of themselves, teammates, coaches, parents, umpires and all that make a season happen is something that should be considered top priority.