Mark Brunswick has been around the game of baseball his whole life. Yet, he has never experienced anything like what is going on with the coronavirus pandemic.
Brunswick, a longtime coach at Bellefontaine High School, and the rest of the prep coaches in the area have been forced to deal with an unprecedented stoppage of their sports seasons.
The spring season was again pushed back Tuesday by the Ohio High School Athletic Association after Governor Mike Dewine ordered that schools stay closed through Friday, May 1. A no-contact period, restricting teams from practicing and scrimmaging, remains in effect.
“These are definitely different times,” said Brunswick on Wednesday. “I feel bad for all of the kids, especially our seniors. When we got word a few weeks ago that we had to shut things down, we had a talk with our players and they were disappointed. We had to cancel our team trip to Myrtle Beach and that was tough. Our kids were really looking forward to that.
“But as time has passed, I think we all have a better understanding of the severity of all of this. What is happening is tragic. We are all trying to maintain a proper perspective.”
As of now, the spring season is set to resume in early May given that schools will reopen. OHSAA Executive Director Jerry Snodgrass remains hopeful that there will be some sort of spring season, but Brunswick worries about the safety of players after having a long layoff.
“I would not be comfortable jumping right into the season with just a week of practice (as the current tentative schedule calls for),” said Brunswick. “Especially for pitchers, it’s a safety concern. When you have had six weeks off, it’s going to take a while to for guys to build up their pitch counts again.”
Brunswick does feel good about the possibility of having a ramped up summer season if the spring season ultimately is lost.
“There have been talks about allowing high school coaches to coach in the summer and also allowing seniors to be able to play Acme baseball,” said Brunswick. “That would be a good way to help make up for losing the spring season.”
While teams are not allowed to get together right now, the OHSAA is allowing coaches to remain in electronic contact with their athletes.
“For us, we have a group text and I will reach out to everyone once or twice a week,” said Brunswick. “We have also worked with a couple of former Bellefontaine athletes, Dak Notestine and Zack Mosbarger, to help our guys stay in shape. Both of those guys are involved in strength and conditioning and they have sent us videos that we have shared with our players. It’s a way they can keep themselves in shape.”