Ever since the coronavirus hit the Bay Area, San Jose State lost potentially thousands of dollars from spring sports. With fall sports season coming up and California reopening some counties, the return of collegiate sports next semester may be a possibility.
But it’s still too soon to open up sporting events and allowing teams to play could leave student-athletes vulnerable to infection.
“We’ll stay optimistic, I believe we are going to have fall sports,” Athletics Director Marie Tuite said in a KNBR interview on May 18. “May not be many spectators in the stands, but we’re planning with our campus being open that we will have fall competition.”
Student-athletes at SJSU can be considered essential employees because of the money they bring in for the school and athletics. But if the university allows fall sports teams to play, it will put the health and safety of those athletes, coaches and everyone involved at risk.
Full-contact sports, like football, will face the challenge and risk of possibly infecting players, coaches, staff and loved ones.
The World Health Organization’s representative, Dr. Michael Ryan, warned reporters in Geneva on May 25 of a second coronavirus peak while Professor Virginia Pitzer from the Yale School of Public Health suspects the current outbreak may last until early fall. This peak the W.H.O. and others have predicted is not uncommon with viruses such as COVID-19.
When the Spanish Flu spread in 1918, approximately 500 million people were infected over the course of a year as estimated by the CDC. So when the 1919 NHL Stanley Cup Final came, hockey fans around the world rallied for something to celebrate.
However, after only five games, the series was called off and no champion was crowned because of the Spanish Flu pandemic.
In a May 25 New York Times article, Larry Hall, the grandson of Joe Hall, a player in the 1919 Stanley Cup Final, describes the relevance of that pandemic with the one today. “The flu that hit the Stanley Cup came at the end of a series of pandemic waves. People relaxed, and then, unfortunately, it came again,” said Hall.
Right now the United States is slowly reopening, raising questions about what sports will look in the near future. Just like the 1919 Stanley Cup Final, people want sports to return so they can escape the melancholy of the pandemic with some entertainment.
If SJSU allows fall sports to return, it might not only help cause a second wave of the virus, but student-athletes might catch the virus even without fans in attendance.
This is why as SJSU plans for the upcoming semester, the university must keep in mind the repercussions of its actions, for its students’ health.
