Did anyone ever expect Covid-19 to be this serious? When Covid first started, a lot of people thought it would only last a few months, and if you did happen to get it you would be able to recover. Nobody would have expected it to affect our daily lives as much as it did. The first main league that was affected by Covid was the NBA. The NBA season was cut short just before the playoffs as Covid turned out to be much worse than anybody could have expected.

The NBA and its fans all needed to finish this season, so they came up with a great idea called “The Bubble.” This kept all 22 teams involved in a confined space. All the players had to stay in an area with no inside or outside access in Orlando, Florida. Upon arrival at the NBA Bubble, every player, coach and staff member had to self-isolate in their rooms for up to 48 hours until they received two negative COVID-19 tests. Once arriving in The Bubble and getting all 322 Covid tests back, only two of them were positive which was amazing. Those two players did have to isolate outside of the bubble, but were able to play again once they were tested negative two more times.

How has this actually affected the athletes? That is a question a lot of people wonder that have never experienced being an athlete during Covid. One of the most important things for an athlete is to have a routine that they follow everyday, and being in these circumstances made it very difficult to have a steady day-to-day routine. 

In my opinion, even through all the crazy things that have happened, we have seen some of the best sports being played we have ever seen. I think that says something about the athletes and the organizations as they have had to work even harder through this pandemic. 

The Covid-19 virus has come to be a very large psychological struggle among high school athletes. Not to say athletes at the collegiate and professional level aren’t struggling, but studies show high school athletes have been worse off because they are going through stress and hormonal changes, and a lot of them use sports as a way to reduce stress and anxiety. 

Being a high school athlete myself, I can say how much Covid affects me as well. Heading into the start of basketball season we have had to wear masks everyday and it makes it very difficult to breath. A lot of people involved in sports believe that masks may be dangerous to wear in high intensity sports like basketball, football, track and field, etc. 

Throughout these next few weeks, especially in high school sports, we will really begin to see the effects masks make in competition.