Tommy Byrne

Tommy Byrne, junior, said Page’s decision did not affect him. According to Byrne, he had already decided against participating in cross country this season due to COVID-19 concerns. 

“Where we are with cases still rising at such a high rate, we should still be doing anything and everything we can to prevent the spread to kids,” Byrne said. “Since we are not going to school it seems like we shouldn’t have kids from other schools come in and play sports.”

According to Byrne, while he feels that the right decision was made, he understands the frustration on the other side. However, Bryne said keeping students and families safe is a bigger priority at the moment. 

“It’s almost more dire to not catch [COVID-19] yourself and spread it to your family. If I were playing football and I caught it, or I caught it while in a game and I came home and I spread it to my family, I would feel really bad,” Byrne said. “I guess that’s just not how they are thinking, I mean that’s obviously their choice.”

Byrne said everything comes down to an individual’s values. He said people’s priorities when it comes to COVID-19 can be drastically different. 

“It’s just up to an individual, and if they’re genuinely concerned about them getting infected or their family [getting infected]. Some people have stayed home since March as much as they can, and other people have gone out with friends because they just don’t care, so that’s almost an individual morality thing,” Byrnes said. “You can do your best to educate people, that would obviously help people understand why we maybe shouldn’t have contact sports at this time.”