Spring season cut short, leaving Caxy seniors in utter dismay

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Photo by Jared Felitto

A racing bib for the Latin Prep Classic, an annual meet attended by the LFA Cross Country Team.

Jared Felitto, Managing Editor of Sports

With COVID-19 reeking havoc around the globe, everybody across the planet has been affected in some magnitude. Regardless of how big or small, everyone has felt the impacts of the Coronavirus. While some people are dealing with serious health issues or other life altering problems with the recent economic decimation that has plagued small businesses and workers across the country, I’m fortunate enough to be only affected by this devastating virus by having my senior year of high school cut short. Is it upsetting? Sure. But in the grand scheme of things, I’d take having my senior year cut short over lots of problems to be having at the moment.
Out of all the great moments I was ready to cherish my senior year at Lake Forest Academy (LFA), nothing topped having one final rack season. Especially since I’m not playing any sports at the collegiate level, having one final sports season was something I was really looking forward to. I had a blast during my senior cross country season in the fall. The coaches, teammates, and just the camaraderie made the season so special; however, I’ve always been a competitive person and expect the very best out of myself. Coming off a successful cross country season my junior year, I was ready to improve my senior year. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Letting down your teammates and coaches is hard enough to accept, but letting yourself down is an even tougher pill to swallow.
This left me with two options: dwell on the past, or put myself in the best position I can possibly be in for track season. Knowing that this was my final time playing sports (competitively), I wanted to leave track season having no regrets. I wanted to use this season as a form of redemption for my subpar cross country performance. So that’s what I did. I put in the work necessary and was entering track season confident and ready to go. However, I would never get that chance.
Having no track season for my senior year was upsetting. I was heartbroken knowing all the practices, meets, and spending time with peers wasn’t going to happen. I was even more infuriated knowing I’d never get that chance to redeem myself and get some closure with running.
Running track for four years and cross country for three, I always was able to look towards the next season. If I ran poorly, I was used to saying, “Hey, there’s always next meet” or, “There’s next season.” Well, now there is no next season, and here I am dwelling over what I should’ve done. My biggest takeaway from all of this is you never really realize how much you appreciate something until it’s gone. I took my athletic seasons at LFA for granted, and that’s something that’s on me.
Even though I wish I valued and appreciated my athletic experience at LFA more, I still am so thankful for all the great coaches and teammates I had during track and cross country. Some of the best memories I made during high school were out on the track and the cross country course–and I’ll always have them.