The 2019/2020 athletic year at all of our area schools was going great until March, when the pandemic hit and ultimately cancelled all spring sports in Iowa. Knoxville Activities Director Ryan Paulsen says it was very disappointing to not have a spring sports season and he was impressed by the athletes and their understanding while being disappointed about losing the spring.

Paulsen:
“At the end of the day, these are games, golf, soccer, track and field, tennis, they’re competitions and we’re all competitive and want to win when there’s a score being kept, but life and death, sickness and health that’s way more important. If you have 15-18 year old kids that understand, that makes you feel good about the future leaders we have.”

Paulsen adds when summer sports was allowed to have a season, the kids were largely grateful to be playing. The summer was for the most part successful as Knoxville Softball finished 10-5 and baseball went 9-10 and unfortunately was one of the few teams in Iowa that did not get to complete its season due to a positive COVID-19 test.