Over the past few months, COVID-19 has affected our ability to give high school students a high school sport experience. Now that the city of Escondido is finally in a safe place (Orange Zone), sports are able to be resumed. A football player at San Pasqual explains how football has been affecting his new day to day life.

With football taking up “most of the time in the day,” Kristian Flores explains, “school seems to feel like a second option.” 

“Even though we’re technically on campus, it doesn’t always feel like school is needed, you know,” Flores continues. 

High school football players have a certain GPA they need to meet. As Flores meets the standards he still finds himself fighting for a starting position. 

“Sometimes when I’m on the field, it kind of feels like nothing else matters, almost like a source of relief,” states Flores.

When it comes to the academic part of football, players such as Flores feel that there is not always time for school work, let alone a social life. Though the social life outside of football is a little lacking, football is allowing high school students to make new friends and expand their social bubbles. Especially with so many students at home, high school sports allows that one healthy and safe outlet. 

But when asked the question of mental health, Flores seems to have a different opinion than most. “I think that football is changing my mindset a bit, like almost allowing myself to work harder, mainly because of the GPA requirement, but also because I feel the need to make people proud.”

On the other hand, physical health is also incredibly important when playing sport and it may also affect one’s mental health. Flores says that “it honestly hurts, like I have shin splints all the time, my feet hurt all the time, I have to get to practice early to get them wrapped and iced, so it kind of sucks.” Of course football is one of those sports that give off the big and burly dude vibe. But not everyone has that experience. “I actually lost like 10 pounds before I started gaining muscle weight.”

The organization during football is also a huge deal now with COVID-19 always weighing down the players. Because San Pasqual doesn’t have a freshman team, due to lack of field space, coaches and directors are forced to play freshmen on the junior varsity team as well. With COVID-19 there are more rules and regulations on and off the field. The entire football season was actually cut short because of COVID-19. 

“There was no practice during summer, so I feel like the play could be better if we had that opportunity. In addition to that, there’s not going to be a CIF for anyone this year because of the virus,” states Flores. 

CIF is the California Interscholastic Federation, a huge tournament with both public and private high schools. Unlike most other state organizations, it does not have a single, statewide championship for all sports; instead, for some sports, the CIF’s 10 Sections each have their own championships. For safety precautions, this will not happen this year. 

With COVID-19 vaccines being handed out every minute, Escondido continues to grow safer and safer for all high school athletes and students. Our high school students are eager to move forward.