As 2020 drags on, there is one more activity canceled by COVID-19, intramural sports. As the number of COVID-29 cases rise in GPS, the decision came directly from the top of GPS, superintendent Dr. Rich Beran.
“I tried really hard to make intramurals work, but Dr. Beran said no,” intramural sponsor Mrs. Kari Bulgrin said. “I asked Mr. (Matthew) Curtis to reconsider, and I asked Colton Stock to come up with rules after the fact. It is only November so I think there is still a chance we could play but I don’t have the power to make that decision. Maybe if there is a vaccine in February we can play in March.”
The order came after Papillion La-Vista high schools shut down their intramurals due to an increase in COVID-19 cases. Once athletic director Mr. Curtis heard this news, the season was canceled.
“I mean you got to follow other schools to an extent,” junior Simon Kerr said. “Whatever our administrators think is right, I fully trust them that they made the right decision to reduce the risk of corona. I’m all for playing as long as we’re good to go and it’s all safe to play because I just love playing.”
Before the season was officially ruled out, Mrs. Bulgrin did make an effort to have a safe season. Senior Colton Stock, who has helped with intramurals in the past, was asked to create rules to ensure safety for all players.
“I came up with a list of COVID rules that would be regulations going forth,” Stock said. “This would make sure that only a certain amount of teams are in the gym at all times. Everyone’s hands and the playing balls and the clocks and everything would be kept sanitary along with making sure that everyone on the team followed certain COVID rules to make sure that individuals were healthy when playing. And wear a mask of course because it is preventative, masks are a good thing.”
However, the rules were not enough to overcome the threat of the pandemic. The loss of this season mainly affects seniors as this was their last chance to play at GHS.
“We go hard and treat this like serious stuff,” Stock said. “Usually, the way it works is the senior team always wins because they beat up on the freshmen. And I have been looking forward to this year for four years now. If that gets taken away it’s going to be tough but maybe we’ll have to make our own intramural league.”
Although students will probably not have a chance to play this year, hopefully in the future after COVID-19 has come and gone GHS intramurals will be able to tip-off again.