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There were plenty of doubters when the PIAA said it was going to have a fall sports season during a pandemic, and plenty who not only voiced support for the athletes and their games, but demanded they continue even when schools faced outbreaks of the novel coronavirus.
Locally, it was a mixed bag. Both of East Juniata's soccer teams will play for district titles Saturday; Mifflin County's harriers will get to run the state course for the season's final cross country meet; Juniata makes its first appearance in a state football game that day as well.
Other Husky teams were not so fortunate. State College and Altoona players will be adorned with district gold in field hockey and girls soccer, respectively, after COVID-19 outbreaks ended the season for the locals. It had to be especially painful for the soccer team, which has sought to make it to this level since the school's founding nearly a decade ago.
It really was a mix for Midd-West. An outbreak that included a teacher and several students led to a two-week closure of Midd-West High School and eventually the middle and elementary schools on the Middleburg campus, although West Snyder Elementary in Beaver Springs remains open. Despite starting in the high school, four of its teams -- boys and girls soccer, field hockey and football -- were allowed to play, all but football being playoff games.
The girls soccer and field hockey teams were eliminated on the field, but the boys soccer team is still playing. The football team's game slated for Friday is canceled.
That's not as bad as Montoursville, where a closure forced cancellation of sports, at least until the school board made a 2 a.m. call to resume, presumably under pressure from parents.
It's fair to note in all the above cases, there is no medical evidence the athletes involved were positive for COVID nor symptomatic.
As our brethren in the (Williamsport) Sun-Gazette noted, "These unprecedented times call for rational discussion and demonizing either side on the playing sports in the age of COVID-19 debate is fruitless. Strong cases can be made on either side."
Indeed. In the words of a more famous person, the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate; but the players gonna play, play, play, play, play.
And they deserve a lot of credit for doing so under the conditions of the fall.