story by Peter Narrai
USF football players
glad to be on the field
The Covid-19 pandemic has been a challenging time for everyone, but for college athletes used to playing before crowds it has completely changed the way they play college sports. College students in general had to adapt to a whole new way of learning by going online but for student-athletes, it was a whole new game.
Jackson Wright
The Covid-19 pandemic changed all aspects of football and school for University of Sioux Falls Offensive Lineman Jackson Wright. Jackson not only had to adapt to a new way of learning, but a different way of life for football. Being a college athlete can be a very challenging experience and when you throw in no reward, it becomes that much harder. Because of the pandemic, the 2020 football season was cancelled for the University of Sioux Falls and the reward of having a season was thrown out the window.
For players on the USF football team, there was not a regular-season snap played for a total of 649 days. For the players of the team, it was unlike anything any of them had experienced, with most players starting their football careers as young as 7 years old. Jackson Wright, a starter in the 2019 season for USF, for the first time in his life he had a Fall without football. “It was tough having to sit and watch other schools play while we couldn’t have a season. How some of the Division 1 levels were playing and we could not,” Wright said when talking about what it felt like to have no season. The players had put in the same amount of work, only to have no chance at showing it all.
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photos courtesy of University of Sioux Falls Athletics
