MOVING FORWARD: Now that spring sports have ended, we want to honor athletes

Corona del Mar baseball players look on during a game in February. (Photo courtesy CdM baseball, For OC Sports Zone)

With the official word that the spring season is over for hundreds of high school athletes around Orange County, we’re trying to honor the seniors and others who had a heartbreaking ending to their seasons. For the seniors, it was sadly the end of their high school careers.

We’ve seen the numerous comments on Twitter. We know how much sports means to the athletes, the coaches, the schools and the communities. We know how hard these athletes have all worked and we applaud them for their strength, courage and desire to be ready. This is heartbreaking and there has been a big void in our lives.

EMAIL TEAM PICTURES: TIMBURT@OCSPORTSZONE.COM

Sadly, there won’t be any more spring sports this year. But as Irvine Unified School District Athletic Director Mark Cunningham said Wednesday, this issue is bigger than sports.

Lives are at stake and we must all stay safe. So as painful as this is, we support the decision by state and school offcials to keep schools closed through the rest of the school year, subsequently ending high school sports.

We hope that the virus is controlled soon, we get back to doing what we love and that fall sports, which are still on right now, will go on as scheduled.

We’re planning special features during this time and we believe there are some great stories to tell during this break. There are no guidelines for how to cover this bizarre story, so everything is on the table. All of our work is being done from our homes by telephone and email but it can be done!

If you have taken pictures before the crisis began, we encourage you to send team pictures so we can provide a fitting send-off to players. We don’t want anyone taking pictures at this time. Please email Tim Burt: timburt@ocsportszone.com and include a picture of the team. If you prefer to send a picture of seniors, that’s OK too. Like we said, just about everything is on the table.

With sports being shutdown, we won’t be covering any sports in the near future, but those of us at OC Sports Zone pledge to work just as hard as we have. We owe it to our readers and we have a tremendous responsibility to provide accurate information during this time. We take it seriously.

We’re very appreciative of our partners who continue to support us in our second, and definitely most challenging year. Please click on their ads to show your support. We welcome others to step up during this challenging time to help us offset our costs, which continue, even during a crisis. Our site will remain free.

We look forward to the day, whenever that is, that we can all be together again at stadiums and gymnasiums across Orange County and share some smiles, some lively discussions and even some laughs. We also encourage everyone to follow the guidelines, including social distancing during this critical time.

Be safe and keep the faith …. this won’t last forever we don’t think and football will be on the way soon, we hope!

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com

Here are some of the other tributes: