Coach's corner: Seeing this season a little differently

It is almost ingrained into every athlete or sports fan that playing to win a championship is what it is all about. The ultimate goal.

High school sports fans in Illinois, as well as participants and coaches, have become used to playing for their version of the ultimate - a state championship. Just the idea of "making it to state" has been enough to send goose bumps of the best kind to many in the high school sporting world.

But all that has changed this year. Athletes, coaches and fans have had to "adjust" their sports thinking, because for the first time in IHSA recent history, there was no state championship competition for fall sports. No one final winner. No single champion.

The same may be true for winter and spring sports. Strange, but true. All the great traditions that so many in the past have dreamed of are gone. No qualifying for state, no bus rides, no hotel stays, no pretournament festivities, no school celebratory "off to state" goodbyes - none of the pageantry normally connected with making it "to state."

Uncharted territories for sure, but let's dissect this a bit further. What if there is no ultimate champion, no final winner, but instead multiple ones? What if we never find out who would have been "number one" eventually?

Traditions are hard to let go, but maybe it won't be so bad. Was there a letdown for fall sport teams and individuals that were successful at the sectional level and who would have qualified for state and competed for the right to be named "state champion"? Sure. Will it be the same for the winter sports athletes? Of course. But over time, the temporary pain subsides, and life does move on. Kids, in particular, are a resilient bunch (surely more so than parents, coaches and sports journalists), and have the ability to adopt to current rules - celebrating what they can and then moving on to the next thing.

Maybe looking back, we have emphasized the ultimate championship too much, at the expense of the real beauty of sport.

In a recent Sports Illustrated interview, superstar college basketball player Sabrina Ionescu - one of the best to ever play the game at the collegiate level and the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft - was asked about returning her senior year instead of opting to go to the pros.

They specifically asked her if she was returning to finally get that elusive championship for her Oregon team. Her response was not typical, but one I thought quite insightful.

"Winning a title was not the be-all and end-all for me coming back. That was actually just a small portion of it. There were so many other things that I didn't want to miss out on. I wanted to finish my master's program. I wanted to have senior night. I wanted to spend another year at school with my brother. I wanted to graduate with the people I came in with. The championship was probably the last thing on the list."

Wow. Winning a title was probably the last thing on the list. This coming from one of the finest competitors collegiate sports has ever seen.

Her point, though, was not so much to minimize winning a championship-but more so to emphasize all the other special things about competing in sports. Each game, each practice, the joy of competing and being cheered on by you're classmates. The special bond a team develops with their teammates and coaches. Etc.

So, to the golfers, the cross-country runners, tennis players and swimmers who just finished their seasons without an ultimate champion being named, and to the upcoming winter athletes who likely will experience the same, the message is this:

Enjoy every practice, every game, every moment, every occasion. Each win is a big win. Winning conference is a great goal. Winning regionals and sectionals an honor to shoot for sure. Senior night is special. Competing with your fellow classmates is a memory you will have for life, as is being cheered on by fans from your school. Don't take that for granted.

The fact that we will never know who the ultimate champion is hurts a little bit. After all it is part of our sports upbringing. Part of the culture if you will. And it has been an IHSA tradition forever.

But as they say, "the times they are a changin'."

Here, finally, may be yet another way to look at it: In most high school team sports where every single team qualifies to compete in state (think volleyball, baseball, softball, basketball, soccer etc.) with the single elimination process, every team but one loses their final game. Repeat: every team except one loses their final game. Only a single school gets to celebrate in the end.

Now, with regional and sectional competition being the final outlet, multiple teams from throughout the state will be able to go out with a win and call themselves champions. Multiple celebrations, multiple victory parades, multiple schools displaying championship plaques and trophies, and more feel-good endings for the teams and athletes.

Might take some getting used to, yes, but maybe not so bad.

Just a thought while trying to stay upbeat in this crazy, and getting crazier, 2020 (soon to be 2021!) sports season.

• Jon Cohn of Glenview is a coach, retired PE teacher, sports official and prep sports fan. Any topics you'd like to see him tackle? Email glenbrooknews@dailyherald.com and include "Coach's Corner" in the subject line.