There is no doubt that the Coronavirus has turned the world upside down – and if you are a sports fan – it has more than done some major damage.
The virus, which has spread around the world, has found a way to affect EVERY sport in this country and throughout the world that has long used games as a release. Every single sport has been altered.
Baseball (Major League and college), basketball (NBA, women and men's college hoops), college wrestling, football (XFL and collegiately), hockey, soccer, tennis and golf.
It has also put a huge grip on college football recruiting and high school football, which relies on this time of year to send athletes to camps and get ready for spring.
The very fact that college football programs have grinded to a stop means that those athletes who usually visit colleges and universities during the spring to make a decision will not have that opportunity this year.
We know it's in the name of safety, but at no time in our lives has anything happened of this magnitude. Not even close – and that's why there is a lot of panic.
Even though adults are more focused on being affected health-wise, high school kids do not grasp that part of what is going on – and it makes it that much tougher to comprehend.
If anyone should understand the huge picture, it's south Florida. While none of the high school athletes – and very few coaches were around for Hurricane Andrew back in 1992, we all had this feeling of the world coming to an end. There was no way that there would be an end to a mess that had been created by the forces of Mother Nature.
No disease or threats of lives coming to an end, but with many left homeless and having to relocate, and the power out for months – in some areas of south Florida – the August 24th storm may not have meant a lot to those outside of the area, but it certainly was this kind of helpless feeling that we all had back then.
Practices throughout Miami-Dade were out of the question – especially if you lived in south Miami-Dade and Homestead. The thought of a season was laughable for many who didn't even have a home to lay their head in at night.
The one thing that brought Miami-Dade and Broward closer together was the fact that South Dade and Homestead happened to be in the same football district as South Broward, Hollywood Hills and McArthur.
That gave youngsters, who were just 15, 16, 17 & 18, a better understanding of what was going on down south with kids their own age.
Schools were used as shelters and places like Harris Field in Homestead was a staging area for recovery. It was a mess. Life threatening? No. But still scary and uncertain.
But the human spirit will always surprise us and come to the forefront. Just when things look the darkest and have no light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, a Coach Don Drinkhahn will appear.
The legendary and longtime South Dade High head football coach is remembered for being such a great football mind, but also a compassionate and thoughtful human. Someone who drove around in the dark of the night in his small pickup truck with a bullhorn, shouting out players' names.
"This is what we needed," said Drinkhahn, weeks after Hurricane Andrew. "All of us had damage to our homes. Every kid and every coach and teacher here. And now we've got to move on. We're all improvising, adapting and overcoming. Football teaches you that. It's like life. It's reality."
At Homestead High, South Dade High and defending state 5A co-champion Southridge High, the storm was a reality. These were the public schools that were hardest hit by Andrew. Here, in a 15-mile radius ravaged in the eye of the storm, some players and coaches lost everything. Some had to transfer. Others simply dropped out of sight. All have suffered. While it was not a disease, it was a dramatic shift in everyone's lives – and death, in some instances, was a sobering reality.
Homestead coach Dale Hardy lost half his roster. When practice started Aug. 15, he had 65 varsity players. That changed in the first week of September when 30 players showed up, along with an additional 30 junior varsity players.
The fact that Hurricane Andrew displaced people and changed lives, the Coronavirus is something that we all are hoping does not ambush us with 200 mph winds and tornadoes for five hours.
In times of any adversity, there is hope and we can only take precautions and understand that if do what is told of us, we can all ride out this turbulence together.
Here's to staying safe an understand that life has a way of working itself out. We have learned that from disasters and adversity throughout our lives.
Catch the South Florida High School Sports Radio Show each Tuesday/Wednesday night (8-10) on 560 THE JOE - WQAM (560AM - https://wqam.radio.com/media/podcast/south-florida-high-school-sports-radio). For the past 13 years, the players and coaches who are making the headlines, join the program. You will learn a lot about football recruiting! Also Follow us on Facebook (Larry Blustein- SFHSports) and Twitter (@SFHSSports - @larryblustein).
