The meaning of sports
When freshman Mercer University men’s soccer goalkeeper Trevor McMullen was young, he didn’t wake up to watch cartoons. He woke up to watch sports. For as long as he can remember, it was sports, watching and eventually playing, that got him out of bed. In his last year of high school, right before March Madness, the NCAA college basketball tournament, everything changed. The Covid-19 pandemic brought all sports to a standstill.
That included McMullen’s senior year soccer season, which along with virtually every other sporting activity in America, was delayed or canceled. The aforementioned March Madness tournament, cancelled. Before you knew it, every professional and semi-professional competitive sporting event around the world was no longer taking place.
To some that may not seem like a big deal. And in the grand scheme of the pandemic, it really is not. Preserving health, particularly when it is life or death, certainly takes precedence over watching or playing sports. And for many people, who had seen their jobs and family functions eliminated, their careers and academic pursuits derailed, and critical social interactions curtailed, worrying about a “hobby” like sports appeared trivial. But during the pandemic it became clear that for athletes and superfans, sports are not just a hobby.
“Sports are everything,” Tougaloo College men’s baseball freshman outfielder and pitcher Jaxson Sprull said.
To get an insight into what Sprull means by “everything,” sports inspire Sprull, as well as many other student athletes, to be “motivated to go to school.”
“I watch or play sports every single day,” Georgia Southern men’s baseball infielder and pitcher Jaylen Paden said. “It’s a must.”
Sports impact the diehards in many ways. For Division I athletes who have devoted extensive time to athletic pursuits, they are reaping the benefits of hard work, validating choices and learning valuable life lessons.
“Sports for me is an escape from everyday life,” Wofford College freshman men’s soccer defender and midfielder Ben Goudy said. “When I go and play soccer, I can put aside everything.”
Athletes are not the only people feeling the strain of Covid-19 restrictions on sports. Also made clear during the pandemic is the importance sports plays in the lives of fans.
“Some people don’t watch sports and that’s fine,” Loyola University Chicago student Nick McGuire said. “I personally watch them all the time and I don’t know how people could go without them.”
McGuire, much like the athletes mentioned, spends every day watching or playing sports. You’ll find him cheering on Atlanta sports teams or Arsenal Football Club, who play in his favorite professional league, the English Premier League. McGuire said that even when he can’t watch many games due to other commitments, he stays aware of scores and sports storylines.
“Sports help me get through day by day,” McGuire said. “I enjoy seeing the unity and seeing the fans backing up the players. It’s always fun.”
Covid-19 and its impact
During the pandemic all of this was lost. The excitement, the escape, and to a lot of athletes and fans around the world, much of the meaning and socialization in their life. Given all of the joy sports brings to people, the feelings of loss were drastic when it was taken away so abruptly.
Without sports Sprull was found asking himself, “What am I supposed to do with my time?”
People in the sports world, like many other people during the pandemic, were left adrift.
“Nobody really knew what to do,” Paden said.
McGuire echoed Paden’s sentiment when saying, “I was heartbroken. I thought the Premier League was going to have to be cancelled.”
For Oklahoma hockey sophomore forward Haden Umdenstock, his season was cancelled right before playoffs. Because of this, he didn’t play from March through most of April. For someone who has played hockey all his life, it wasn’t easy to have such a quick change in daily habit.
“It was extremely difficult,” Umdenstock said. “As someone who has quite literally moved around to countries and played hockey every day of my life for the past 11 years, it was very different to not be able to play. It was really taxing mentally.”
As Umdenstock hinted at, the biggest impact on most participants and fans was on their mental wellbeing.
“Mentally it’s probably the biggest source of happiness I get in life,” Goudy said.
Sports for many is a stress reliever. Something they can turn to on their stressful and darkest days for distraction, comfort, and a sense of belonging.
For Umdenstock sports help him stay focused with a rigid schedule to follow from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. almost every day.
Similarly to Umdenstock, many others see sports as a way to keep focused. A love of sports creates order for some people, offering a purpose to the day, social commitments, and mental support to help push through when times get tough. The painful irony is that, during one of the most challenging and life upending experiences that many athletes and fans have ever faced, the thing that normally gets them through these times wasn’t there.
“I had a feeling of emptiness,” Sprull said. “It definitely was a sad time to live through.”
Lives were turned upside down and people didn’t know where to look.
“Without playing I felt a little directionless, a little lost,” Goudy said.
What they learned
The weeks and months of absolutely nothing to do would eventually come to an end. Some leagues successfully restarted, and there were at least some sports events to enjoy. It helped players and fans feel a little better. By fall of 2020, while the choices for the participant and the fan alike were limited, options emerged. And those most affected proved the importance of sports in their lives, doing whatever it took to get a fix of their passion.
“I was looking ahead weeks in advance to put games on my calendar that I normally wouldn’t care about at all,” McMullen said. “Waking up so early at 5 a.m. to watch games all over the world.”
Despite the frustration and pain, the disruption revealed an undeniable devotion to sports.
“Once it was taken away, I realized how much of a passion it is,” Goudy said. “I don’t really do anything besides play sports. I only want to play soccer.”
When something is a part of your everyday life, sometimes you forget the important things.
“I never realized how much I took it for granted,” McGuire said.
With his lesson learned, McGuire was thrilled to have his favorite league back in action, even with complications.
“When the Premier League started up, it was like opening a present on Christmas,” McGuire said. “I didn’t care that there were no fans. It was wonderful.”
Paden took the chance during the pandemic to put in work and better himself. When he came back he was ready and excited to do anything.
“It was great,” Paden said. “It could be 100 degrees, I wanna go out there and run.”
As sports came back both on television and in person, people’s lives went back to some sort of normalcy. They felt more organized and happier. There was a feeling of direction and purpose they hadn’t felt since the beginning of the pandemic. When they came back, it was different with Covid protocols. Umdenstock said his team would get their temperatures checked and if they were above 97 degrees, they would be sent home from practice.
While some of the protocols changed the experience somewhat, it really didn’t matter to the diehard athletes and super fans. In the same way Paden wanted to run in 100-degree weather, players were just happy to be playing and watching the sports they love again. And most approached the improving conditions with a mindset of never taking it for granted again.
The bigger picture of why sports coming back is important
While the many affected by the halting of sports cited varying reasons for their burning desires for a return to normal, the common theme amongst almost everyone was a wish to reconnect with their community.
While the success of an individual’s athletic pursuits certainly depends much on that person’s independent workouts and self-improvement efforts, it still comes together in the arena of competition. And for so many sports, even those for which events are won and lost by an individual, a sense of team is present in everything that happens.
“Sports teach you to sit by some random person and be best friends with that person,” Sprull said.
The communal experience of sports creates tight bonds. Whether on the playing field, in the locker room, from the stands or in front of the TV, these bonds form quickly, providing the members of the community a welcome path to socialization.
“You can make relationships with people you might’ve just met yesterday, and they become your family the next day,” Paden said.
For those struggling more than others from the loss of sports during the pandemic, it was this deprivation of group experience that seemed to be common. Training with others and mutual encouragement motivates the reaching of goals, pride in self, and healthy group dynamics that positively impacts life outside of sports.
Much of the same rewards benefit the fans who experience watching their favorite team with friends and like-minded fanatics. Whether you are celebrating victories with other fans of the same team or challenging your friend’s opinion of his favorite player on your rival team, joy comes from the interaction. Covid-19 stole our opportunities to high-five and hug. It took away regular gatherings and eliminated endless discussion about the current events in sports. But it could not end the passion of the athlete and fan alike.
Today there is optimism in the world of sports that normalcy is on the horizon. A sense of relief is settling in over the community. A taste of those interactions, even if at the currently reduced rate when compared to pre-pandemic levels, has brought some sanity to the diehard.
“Its been immense,” Sprull said. “Its gave me that purpose back into my life.”