From the sidelines: Right now, I feel a sense of loss

By Marty Gordon
Change could be a good way to describe my life in the past month. We did not expect it to happen, and we definitely did not want it to happen. But it did.
Sports will never be the same after almost everything was shut down this spring. On top of that, the Olympics were also postponed.
I really don’t know how to explain my pain of losing something I have grown to love and cover over the past 30 years. I also know how important the shutdown was and is to the sports community’s overall health.
I feel the frustration and pain of high school seniors who were not given a chance to prove themselves. Yes, some of those seniors will continue their playing careers in college, and it is well deserved. But there is nothing like your senior year in sports.
I really believe the all-county, all-city area had a chance for as many as five state team championships this spring. There were also many individual champions scattered in track and field. Do remember, you all are champions in our eyes, and I am sorry for not getting the chance to cover you this spring.
I hope every one of you will keep your head up and make us proud in your future life. Hold onto the memories of your high-school days and the press clippings that I included in the newspaper.
It might be 20 or 30 years from now, but your mother will give you a book filled with those clippings. Say thank you and take a trip back to the time when sports was changed as we never had seen before. I hope we never have to experience this again. But again, we never know what change will bring us.
Also, thank your mother for holding onto those clippings. She was a proud parent no matter the success you had or did not have. She was your number one fan.
Thank you, mom, for being there as the historian of each of these youngster’s lives.
It has been my pleasure to cover you Class of 2020. Thanks for all the memories. Your future lies ahead of you. Don’t hate the change. Just move on to bigger and greater things. Salute’.