We did it.
Or more importantly, you did it.
That’s right, all of you can take some credit that the 2020-21 wrestling season finished with one of its most competitive state tournaments ever, just short of a year after the sports world was shut down by the coronavirus pandemic – because it might not had happened at all.
It happened because of you.
You who wore masks.
You who used hand sanitizer.
You who made sure that you didn’t compete or spectate if you were experiencing any symptoms of the virus.
And you who put up with changes and modifications on the fly to make sure the sport with the closest contact was able to continue on with a full celebration at the end of the season at Silver Spurs Arena.
It wasn’t always a sure thing.
A couple of days before last year’s tournament, I was asked suddenly by my editor to reach out to wrestling coaches and ask if they were worried about this “coronavirus thing.”
The answers varied in all levels of concern, but each had a common theme, wrestling was already one of the most sanitized sports and they felt the sport would be prepared.
I didn’t think about it much that weekend as the tournament went just like it always had.
Just days after the Florida high school wrestling season concluded though, the sports world shut down almost immediately as the pandemic spread.
It would be months until professional team sports in this country came back and popular offseason wrestling tournaments and camps were postponed and eventually canceled.
As the high school season approached, states across the country postponed and moved the dates of many sports, including wrestling.
Here in September, Kissimmee Osceola wrestling coach and athletic director Jim Bird was working with his staff on a way to put on a Super 32 qualifier that could protect kids and coaches, but also to show that it could be done safely.
It was a real life proving grounds for the sport of wrestling during the pandemic.
They came up with new ideas, including separating weight classes into blocks for weigh-ins and competition to prevent crowds from being too large.
They set up hand sanitizers for wrestlers at each mat to use before and after each bout and asked each competitor to wear a mask leading up to and right after they competed.
The tournament went off without an outbreak and showed that wrestling could be competed if necessary precautionary steps were taken.
“We showed that we can do this,” Bird said about that event. “I can’t say enough about my staff who worked so hard to come up with new ideas to make this work and then went and implemented them.”
Bird said that along with his staff, the wrestlers, coaches, parents and fans bought into it too.
“We all knew that if we really wanted a season we needed to accept these changes,” Bird said. “And we did it.”
A lot of those precautions were implemented throughout the season by many events across the state.
Along with mask wearing and staggered start times, tournaments had stricter rules around distancing and crowd control with more separation of fans and kids, with online ticketing also becoming the only way to attend some events.
For Bird, the ideas that came from protecting during a pandemic may have made the sport even better going forward.
“I think a lot of things we changed were maybe for the better and I think could stick around,” Bird said. “There’s a lot less sitting around when the weight classes are staggered and we’ve noticed a whole lot less skin issues this year.”
Bird also said that despite all of these changes, his attendance and gate receipts were up this season, noting that people buying tickets online beforehand made them more likely to come out and watch the action.
That doesn’t mean the season wasn’t affected by the virus.
There were teams quarantined after tournaments early in the season and throughout the year, seasons were put on hold for some teams because of outbreaks, often beyond their control. Some teams and wrestlers missed out on the postseason due to quarantine and contact tracing in their program.
Included in these were many potential state qualifiers and placers.
My heart still breaks for all of them.
But for those that were lucky, the wrestlers in this state put on a state tournament to remember with thrilling matches, great drama, and some special moments of sportsmanship. It punctuated the oddest and maybe the most determined high school wrestling season in state history.
“I just want to thank the fans for buying into this and doing what we asked,” Bird said. “We are so blessed to have been able to have this tournament.”
Blessed indeed.
And it’s thanks to all of you.
