Football players respond to cancelled sports season

     HCPS announces there is no fall season for athletes this year. Football players at North Harford express their thoughts on the cancellation of their sports season. 

     Junior Ben Sersen mentions how he feels about his season being cancelled. “I mean it sucks, me and a lot of my friends held onto rumors of the season starting just praying we’d have a chance.” He says that he is preparing for next season by, “working out as much as I can and trying to stay in shape for next season.”

     Sersen expresses how much football means to him, “There’s a culture behind football like no other sport as a player, having that taken from you is heartbreaking.” Sersen adds, “There are a bunch of super driven guys that want to win, and it sucks that I’m missing out on playing with the seniors.”  

     Senior Jackson Miller takes a different route saying, “I want to say it [cancelled football season] didn’t help me but it did.” Miller adds, “I was able to run my business in the fall since we had no season. Which benefited me and the business since we did pick up a lot of work during the fall season.” 

  Without the team beside him, Sersen says, “It’s hard to get myself in the groove of working out and I often find trouble in keeping the motivation up when I’m all alone.” Sophomore Cruz Cespedes mentions his thoughts on not being around his teammates, “I do find it hard to train because in the weight room and [at] practice there’s always that sense of relief when you make a big play in front of teammates.” 

     Regarding covid, Cespedes says, “I think we should be allowed to play because covid numbers have gone down and [for] seniors, this is their last chance to get recruited for their sport of choice.” He adds, “Covid doesn’t worry me because there’s a very high survival rate, vaccines are coming out, and there’s all sorts of stuff to be able to treat or prevent covid.” 

     Like Cespedes, Sersen says, “My sister had covid, my best friend had covid, I’ve been exposed multiple times and I haven’t caught it.” He adds, “My biggest worry with covid is my mother because she had breathing issues. When I’m out on the field, the virus is the least of my worries, I just want to win.”

     Sersen mentions, “I think that they’re taking a safer route in trying to bring everyone back to schools and I don’t personally mind that, but I have a good number of friends who decided they weren’t even going to attempt to do their school because football was the only thing that motivated them.”