114 Training Through Uncertainty: A Football Player’s COVID-19 Journey

When COVID-19 first hit in March 2020, I was attending Football North Prep Academy at Clarkson Secondary School in Mississauga, Ontario. I was 17 years old and in grade 12. I had been accepted to McMaster University and received a Football Scholarship. I was working hard to prepare for the next steps in my academic and football careers.

Initially, my classmates and I were told the school would shut down for two weeks with a plan to resume regular activity after the short break. I remember sharing the common belief with my peers that everything would return to normal relatively quickly. That never happened. We entered a full lockdown protocol shortly after the two-week break. Unfortunately, I did not see many of my classmates ever again. We didn’t return to regular in-person classes that year and my high school classes fully transitioned online. We were also told that our current grades would stay locked-in as they were and could only improve and not decrease. This made the priority of school minimal for me, as I remember being quite content with my grades at the time and was left with very few activities to perform in my daily routine. My day-to-day social life completely changed. Without the standard in-person classes I had become familiar with over my academic career, I entered a social isolation mainly focused on football training. 

Before the provincial lockdown protocols, I participated in a strict daily training schedule with my fellow teammates at Football North Academy. I enjoyed working hard with my teammates as we all shared a common goal of achieving success as University Student-Athletes in the future. As the schools were closed entirely due to the provincial lockdown, I could not continue my daily routine of spending time in this positive environment and was forced to continue my pursuit of success as a student-athlete on my own. Commercial gyms were also closed due to lockdown protocols, making it even more challenging to have the benefits of training partners that shared a common goal. This made it very difficult to stay motivated to pursue my dreams of becoming a successful student-athlete, as completely shutting down my positive daily social interactions was a massive challenge to my mental health. 

I was fortunate to have invested in a small but serviceable home gym over my high school years. This became the most valuable tool available to me during the Covid lockdown. The ability to still train daily for my sport kept me focused on pursuing my dreams and gave me a massive advantage over my future competitors. Having limited activities left available from my daily routine, I invested much of my time into developing my physical strength and speed for my future football career. This was also a simple but essential support to my mental health. This daily commitment to training hard by myself taught me many lessons about myself and allowed me to get ahead of my competitors by utilizing the lockdown for a self-improvement journey. The good that came from being forced into this new daily routine has helped me significantly in my career as a University Student-Athlete. When standard team training activities resumed in the fall of 2021, I was able to display all the hard work I put in during Covid and was taught a great lesson in self-improvement and mental resiliency.   

Virtual school was a challenging experience in my academic career. It was the only mode of schooling available during the end of my high school and start of University education at McMaster. I found the limitations of social interaction particularly difficult. My more mature friends had constantly told me how exciting my first year of University would be at McMaster prior to Covid. They had shared their own stories of developing numerous connections with fellow classmates. This was basically impossible to replicate due to the mode of virtual schooling. I felt very isolated from my virtual classmates and felt there was little emphasis on genuine social interaction while participating in virtual classes. The reality of only having access to virtual schooling early in my University journey significantly impacted my ability to develop friendly social connections with fellow McMaster students. I experienced it myself and have found a similar consensus to be true among other people my age in a similar situation. The limitations of not physically being in a classroom or dorm housing with other first-year students created a void in the traditional University experience that did not have a simple alternative when in-person classes resumed. 

Missing out on a formal high school graduation and prom due to lockdown protocols was also a difficult reality to face. Overall, it was a difficult time for people my age. Missing out on life events that are commonly talked about as lifelong memories was a disappointing reality that did not have any sufficient alternatives to replicate the experience. The forced reality of having to live in a prolonged period of social isolation and being unable to experience traditional teen events such as graduation, prom, welcome week, etc. has shifted the culture of social interactions and commonalities of people my age. For myself, I felt as if I had missed out on a very active time for creating new connections and meeting a variety of friends early in University; the limited platforms available to create connections among university students impacted what my social circle and relationships look like today. I was forced, like many others, to rely on previous friendships and relationships that I had built prior to Covid. As much as I tried to socially branch out to students who were not familiar to me, it always seemed more difficult than I had previously experienced. It was a very confusing and frustrating time as my parents and older friends had emphasized the fun associated with First year along with the lifelong relationships that often get formed during that first year. 

Blame is a relevant course theme that connects to my Covid experience. While I made the best choices to better my career as a student-athlete, there were most definitely times when I was frustrated about the situation I was living in. People my age missed out on important life events and memories that cannot be replicated. With the original Covid cases being reported outside of Canada, it was shocking to see how fast the virus overtook the world and eventually changed my entire life. The world was very critical of other people in society and would hold grudges or blame them for spreading the virus. 

This reminds me of the Black Death and the social blame attached to certain societal groups – particularly the animosity between religious groups or how the plague was associated with the “sinful” members of society. I felt a similar sense of blame throughout the world, but in a more modern way. As a younger person, I thought I was often scolded by the older generations, possibly assuming that I was rebellious about the provincial lockdown protocols or having a reckless attitude that could potentially harm them. This was a shocking addition to my Covid experience, as it altered my life even more to deal with negative assumptions from strangers and added unnecessary mental stress.