High school athletes are continuing to adjust to a spring without sports both on and off the field as the COVID-19 virus has muted some celebrations reserved for teammates and family members.
Because of social distancing guidelines and restrictions put into place by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, schools have been off-limits to athletes during a time when postseason awards banquets and college signing ceremonies are held. That has caused student-athletes to get creative in how they host one of the biggest days of their athletic careers.
Yoursportsedge.com has been a part of three virtual signing ceremonies over the past month, all held on different social media platforms. The latest was Monday when Christian County senior Tyquez Douglas signed his letter to play football at Thomas More University. The signing ceremony was held at Douglas’ house with the media invited to participate via Zoom video conferencing. Chris Jung, the marketing and events coordinator for the City of Hopkinsville, arranged and moderated the ceremony over video.
Douglas said the signing ceremony was just one way the COVID-19 pandemic has affected his final weeks as a high school student.
Normally, the signing ceremony would be held at the high school in front of family, friends, and students. On Monday, it was held in his backyard with a small gathering of family and coaches.
Tyquez’s mother is Tishauna Douglas, who is a teacher at Christian County Head Start. The past six weeks have been a learning curve with her also as she made the transition from helping teach preschoolers to teaching a high school senior.
The technology curve thrown at the students this spring also affected many old school parents, like Tishauna, when it came to helping with assignments.
In addition to Douglas’ signing ceremony on Zoom Monday, Yoursportsedge.com was invited recently to cover the signings of Hopkinsville’s Keane Mumford on Facebook live and Trigg County’s Trevor Lewis over Facetime.
