Student-Athletes Select Virtual School to Avoid Quarantines

For some student-athletes determined to play, sports are a part of their lives; To prevent getting quarantined from not only academics, but also athletics these students are willing to do virtual school to guarantee playing this season.

Head football coach John Redders said seniors on the football team only have a “guaranteed five games left in their career,” Redders said. “You know if you get quarantined you’re missing for sure two of them.”

Redders thinks that students learn better in person but understand the tradeoff. “You go virtual so you can have a better chance of playing or you go face to face with a higher chance of getting quarantined especially if you're in classrooms that don’t meet the social distancing requirements,” Redders said. “The kids that are here are probably getting a better learning experience but then they're at risk to be sent home.”

Athletic Director Scott Helms thinks the decision is one that shouldn’t be influenced by coaches, and it should be up to the student-athlete and their family. “If a student athlete doesn't feel they are able to social distance in their classes and they don't want to take a chance of being quarantined, the family has that option to choose virtual school,” Helms said.

Coaches share a similar view. “I think it's a family decision, if I was a student I wouldn’t not like to do virtual, but I understand kids that dont want to take the risk of getting quarantined,” Redders said.

Helms said students-athletes also should take additional precautions to protect themselves in public even if it is a big challenge. “Following COVID protocol and changing their social interactions to protect themselves outside of school,” is the biggest challenge Helms said.

For student athletes doing online they haven’t really noticed any big changes in their grades. Junior cross country runner Cael Schoemann said it’s “not as bad as in the spring last year,” and that he likes the “live” classes offered virtually.

However with student-athletes wanting to play their sports, the choice makes absolute sense for them. Senior volleyball player Elizabeth Lepak is doing online school because of her sport, “I wanna play,” Lepak said. “For us we only have like 3 more weeks left so I mean it's kinda worth it.”

Some athletes doing virtual for this reason share a similar attitude. Schoemann said he doesn’t want his season to end because of someone else who is in close contact with him. “My season doesn’t end because of someone that gets next to me,” Schoemann said. “Even if I don’t have it because my whole season’s out the window.”

Lepak is doing virtual school to play sports and thinks it’s a good idea for someone to do virtual “if they were in a varsity sport and they didn’t wanna get quarantined I would highly recommend going online,” Lepak said.

Other students share a similar attitude. “If you have like big goals on the season then it's definitely worth it,” Schoemann said but added, “It's kinda frustrating.”

Some athletes don’t like the fact that they would have to quarantine even if they didn’t have it. “Even if you don’t have it you still have to separate yourself,” Schoemann said, “I think that’s kinda stupid even if you don’t have it.”

Despite the frustration of having to do online school to be guaranteed to play they are still willing to do it. “I mean I gotta do

what I gotta do to play,” Lepak said.