For High School Athletes Across The Spectrum Of Ability, The Drive To Keep Going Is A Challenge During Pandemic

Editor's Note: A high school journalist Lily Dozier from Camas, Wash., submitted this report on how athletes in her home state are dealing with the lost opportunity to compete

By Lily Dozier for DyeStat

Sophomore Ella Wilks of Camas High in Washington had been training for track season since the early fall.

Now, like many other high school athletes across the country, the 16-year-old Wilks sometimes feels that her effort has not been worthwhile.

When athletic events ground to a halt around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March, it put an end to many opportunities for all levels of athletes.

High school athletes, especially those hoping to gain interest from college recruiters and earn scholarship opportunities, were particularly affected. On top of that, the lack of day-to-day practice and weekly meet results brought a void. 

For the less dedicated, it is easy for motivation to slip.

“One of the big things for me was that I’ve been training beforehand, so I felt really bummed out that my training felt like it had gone to waste. I knew it wasn’t wasted, but it felt wasted at the time, because I don’t get to see my results,” Wilks said.

For the hundreds of thousands of non-elite athletes that populate high school track and field, Wilks' words represent many. 

For North Central (Spokane) junior Allie Janke, a national-level performer and state champion, the desire to keep training is stronger, but still challenging. 

“Before each season I make a little section in my phone notes where I write down all the different goals I want, and then as the season goes along I check them off,” Janke said. “But I kinda deleted that.”

Janke said her team had high hopes of ranking nationally in the Distance Medley Relay. Her teammates on that team are seniors and they won't have a chance to run the event together in a school uniform.

“This was our last chance to really go for a national DMR (title), which kind of stinks, but it is what it is,” Janke said.

Camas High senior Aspen Ashcraft, 17, was hoping to get over an injury that began during her junior track season and carried through her senior cross country season.

“I know my junior year, for the majority of the season, I just wasn’t into it, and every race I definitely didn’t push myself as hard as I could have,” she said. “I really wanted to come into the season with a better mindset, to push myself in every race and to see consistent improvement.”

She hoped for improved performances because she plans to run for her college in the fall.

Aside from greater opportunities, athletes have been disappointed to miss small experiences as well.

Wilks said the most enjoyable part of her season is having fun at dual meets and early invitationals where results do not hold such high stakes. She said she feels she is missing out on bonding with her teammates and athletes from other schools.

“It’s really nice to build relationships with people from different schools who do the same thing as you,” she said. “That’s where I meet a ton of my friends."

Janke, too, misses the social connection of a team and a season. 

“I love all of it; there are really no parts that aren’t happy memories for me,” Janke said. “But I really like just the group activities and team bonding, like celebrating together afterwards and getting ready together before, and just the camaraderie there.”

Eisenhower High senior Jonas Price, 18, also said he was disappointed about losing the social aspect of track.

“I meet a lot of new people during track, some people that I’ve seen during school who I always want to talk to,” he said. “I feel like that’s what I’m missing out on.”

Price has continued to work hard on his own. He's preparing to run in college at Oklahoma State University. 

Aside from the disappointment of social distancing and missing postseason opportunities, Price has found ways to stay motivated in his training.

“I just have to have my hopes up for anything that comes up during the summer, any races or anything,” he said. “I’ve been texting (my coach) throughout this whole quarantine. He just says, ‘Keep your hopes up, you never know what’s going to come next.’ So I’ve just got to keep training and hope for what’s best.”

However, training alone is still not easy. He said it’s hard to do workouts without his coach present.

“It’s just totally different. I don’t feel like it’s changed my fitness level, it’s just changed my social aspect of training. This is me and myself running,” Price said.

Ashcraft also said she has continued training while keeping her next season in mind.

“Sure, this season’s over, but me running for the rest of my life isn’t,” she said. “I just keep myself fit and mostly healthy so I don’t fall too far behind.”

Janke is also training through quarantine for similar reasons.

“I start going stir crazy if I take one day off running,” she said. “Part of that’s just for my mental health, just getting out there and enjoying the sunshine.

“I know it’s a ways out, but I’m trying to focus on what goals I still have for myself and the rest of high school, like what I want to do next year in the cross country season and just staying in good shape so when summer comes and I train for cross, I’m in a good position to do well,” Janke said.

Janke is in a good situation for college recruitment. Despite being a junior, her times from last season are good enough to be near the top of many college coaches' lists.  

The athletes less well known than Janke and Price are not as fortunate.

Ashcraft, because of her injury, felt it was a struggle to get the attention of the coach at Montana State even though she had made the decision, on her own, to commit to the college.   

Price was hoping to work with a teammate and help him gain the times he needed to take the next step to college. 

“My best friend, he was set on the season to try and run for college. I was really pushing him with me during the winter, and it really breaks my heart,” Price said.

Despite Price’s best efforts to keep him motivated, his friend, who is also a senior, decided to quit, telling Price it was not worth training since there was no season.

Many in the Class of 2021 hoped to make an impression this spring as their bodies mature and begin to show their potential.

Union High (Camas) junior Cason Shepard, 17, is another Washington-based athlete whose recruiting process was thrown off-track by the pandemic.

“I had emailed and had a recruiting call with MIT, and they were asking what type of meets I’ve been to, like indoor preseason stuff. And they said they were going to be looking at my times this year, because these times are the times they use for early application next year,” he said. “Basically, they can’t see my junior times now, which really sucks.”

Of course, MIT and other schools will have to find new way to evaluate talent now. 

Despite losing this season, Shepard has kept training. He said what keeps him motivated is “not wasting the training you put in…"

"Because (next season is) still coming and I can’t fall behind.”