Every passing day brings more and more cancelations that have a direct impact on the lives of everyone from families to athletes. As a high school senior who has participated in three different sports, I look to the spring athletes with tears as our hearts break a little more with each subtracted event.

Personally, I was involved in what IHSA considers a winter sport, so the spring cancelations in high school athletics are not directly impacting me. However, bowling is a sport that goes on year round, with hosts and organizations planning tournaments all across Illinois, and even in other states, for youth bowlers. The whole sport offers countless opportunities for children to get involved at an early age.

Meanwhile, the Coronavirus is slowly taking each tournament away. Along with sports like baseball and track, bowlers who continue competing outside of high school competition are facing a new slap in the face every time they wake up.

Yesterday was my last day bowling for at least two weeks. All bowling alleys are shutting down starting today, March 17. The news hit hard and, despite my constant string of jokes and laughter with some amazing bowling friends yesterday, I walked into my house after league and could no longer hold the tears back. I was welcomed with a hug from my mother, who bowls herself, having started at a young age. But she did not understand. It is weird being stripped of the opportunity to get better when I am a strong believer that there is no excuse for someone out-practicing me. 

I woke up today to a Facetime from my friend Braden Kidd, a sophomore who bowls for Plainfield South. He told me the latest cancelation of a Pepsi state tournament we both qualified to the final round for. The call was short and quiet. We had no words. The news was not even surprising anymore, as each day I get hit with something new. So I simply nodded and hung up shortly after.

Bowling is easily my biggest motivator. It is what inspires me to do well in school. I want to be eligible and make it into a good college to continue my sport. Seeing the posts on social media regarding athletes facing their destroyed senior season has messed with my mind. I cannot imagine how I would begin to handle the season I work hard for every day being gone entirely. Some of these seniors were relying on this spring season to be recruited. I was lucky enough to finish state before quarantine, but am still facing harsh cancelations.

In my free time, I managed to make some mini ice cream cones and binge Youtube. It is only day one of quarantine and nothing seems all that great. I hope such cancelations actually impact the state of our country. I hope our sadness is not going to waste.