Prep sports will resume but ‘feel’ different in fall

State and local officials are trying desperately to find an avenue to get back to some degree of normalcy. Among them is Louisiana High School Athletic Association executive director Eddie Bonine, who is awaiting word from Gov. John Bel Edwards to reopen the state to commerce and some conditional social events.
    

Bonine, who watched the association’s spring sports come to a disheartening end as the virus struck the state shortly after their seasons began, is exploring options to prepare for a fall sports campaign as schools reopen in August. This year is especially important to the LHSAA and high school fans, parents and athletes.
    

This year would be the LHSAA’s centennial. The association that began 100 years ago and survived a depression, world war and numerous weather events is faced with its most difficult obstacle to overcome – “the silent enemy,” as it has been described.
    

The start of the 2020 fall sports of football, volleyball, cross country and swimming is just weeks away and normally, at this time, high school athletes would be in the weight rooms, gymnasiums, swimming pools and on the grass tracks preparing for what for many rising seniors will be their last hurrahs.
    

Bonine is eager to get the new sports calendar off on a positive note. He is greatly bothered by the fact that the graduating seniors of the Class of 2020 had their final year of eligibility abruptly ended with neither the fanfare of victory nor the anguish of defeat. His own son was one of those seniors who did not get to wear the uniform of his school for the last time.
    

Just last week Bonine said he was confident that Gov. Edwards would open the state for business with some concessions, but he was cautious to add that the face of sports will be altered.
    

“It’s time to get back out there, though I’m not exactly sure what it will look like when we do,” he told Robin Fambrough of The Advocate. “We may have to do it without fans in the stands.”
    

The lifting of the stay-at-home order, announced by Gov. Edwards on May 11, will allow preparation for the upcoming sports year to begin, if the various school districts and superintendents agree.
    

Sporting events are essential to our lifestyle. Experiencing a fall without football or volleyball is inconceivable to me after spending the better part of my 55 adult years in gyms and on football fields.
    

Three football games I made a point of attending were the Catholic school rivalry games  between Jesuit vs. Holy Cross, Brother Martin vs. St. Augustine and Archbishop Rummel vs. Archbishop Shaw. I attended all three for years until the six schools decided to concurrently play those games on the first week of district play while interest in the rivalries were at their peak.
    

The centennial game between Jesuit and Holy Cross drew the largest crowd of the season at Tad Gormley Stadium. It wasn’t a 24,500-seat sellout but still something special.
    

Realizing it would be, I arrived at City Park at 2:15 p.m. for a 7:15 kickoff. For the next four hours I spent time with tailgaters from both schools. Food and beverage tents lined the sides of the Marconi Drive and Roosevelt Mall entrances to the stadium. Fans of the teams donned specially made commemorative jerseys. Then, one hour before kickoff, as the lines of fans filed through the Gormley gates, I hung out with the game officials in their locker room.
    

To this day, I can’t imagine the 100th game between these two storied schools not having taken place. And I cannot imagine the LHSAA’s centennial season not becoming a reality. 
    

Ron Brocato can be reached at [email protected].