Only in the 2020-21 school year would I have to stay at home for two weeks because someone on my little brother’s basketball team tested positive for Covid-19. 

Once a single teammate comes in contact with anyone who shows symptoms, or tests positive for COVID-19, it puts anyone they have had contact with at risk. Entire families may be required to quarantine, along with anyone else who was in contact with that person. From my experience, being quarantined sounds great at first but after a bit, my grades dropped and I stopped paying attention in my classes. 

As athletes, we run the risk of our team or any other team we face having a possible positive case. Once just a single athlete’s test comes back positive the entire team is forced to quarantine, halting or possibly canceling the entire season. 

The pandemic is the ultimate team sport. To stay safe, there has got to be some form of teamwork

. Everyone needs to wear masks, wash their hands, we need social distancing. Athletes, we have a specific set of rules to follow, be considerate of your teammates and their families. Traveling during the pandemic should be off-limits to athletes especially when you are around your team regularly. If we don’t honor them, it affects more than just us and the people we live with. There is a team that stands with you. 

Traveling at this time is not a safe way to conduct yourself as a member of any team. While on vacation or on a plane you are putting yourself around so many different people from tons of different places, do you expect all of them to be completely safe? Everyone, including not only ourselves but also our families, must remember that this isn’t some cold that will go away after staying home for a day. The faster we work as a team, on and off the field, the faster our everyday lives go back to normal.