‘Best week of my life’: Football’s return unknown, but for one day ... it was back
At the end of a lot of football games, coaches will tell their players to go into the stands and hug their mothers, but Saturday night, Tommy Beason had a different message.
“Last thing you need to do before you leave: You find somebody and tell them, ‘Thank you,’ ” Beason said. “You wouldn’t be in this situation if somebody else hadn’t sacrificed for you. You didn’t get here alone.”
Beason’s West team beat the East 14-9. There was a lot of history made during the game and because of the game, as the Eagle reported Friday. But perhaps most important to some of the players and coaches, in a world where the future of football isn’t guaranteed anymore, Saturday in Topeka was maybe their last promised game for months.
The 2020 Kansas Shrine Bowl was the third high school football game played in the U.S. since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Nebraska Shrine Bowl was played last week, and another all-star game between players from Illinois and Indiana took place Monday.
Those events and the Kansas Shrine Bowl alike took on a wealth of criticism for going on with the game. Coronavirus cases in Kansas have hit new peaks since the state began to reopen.
Although the true health of the players, coaches and about 2,000 spectators won’t be known for at least a few more days, those who participated couldn’t have been happier that they were given the chance. Many players said the practices, Shrine Bowl experience events and the game made for the “best week of my life.”
“I had so much fun with these guys,” Maize South cornerback Trevion Mitchell said. “We will remember each other for the rest of our lives. We will remember this game and this experience for the rest of our lives. Just so much fun playing with these guys.”
In early March when sporting events started to get canceled - Kansas high school spring sports included - questions about whether football would be played in the fall soon followed. Those questions still haven’t been answered and likely won’t for at least another few weeks.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly issued an executive order that all schools will remain closed until after Labor Day, Sept. 7. The postponement of all Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) sports was incldued.
Week 1 of the football season won’t go on as scheduled, barring an overturning vote from the Kansas Board of Education. Who knows if that is all that will be affected for those coming back to high school in the fall.
Chance Omli, a former Eisenhower safety and Shrine Bowl selection in 2020, is heading to Butler County Community College to continue his football career. Monday, he received a text from his Butler coach saying the entire junior college season had been moved to the spring.
For Omli and all other Shriners who are heading to junior colleges, Saturday was their final football game for the next few months.
“But you know what? If this is the only game we play this year, I wouldn’t have had it any other way,” Omli said. “When I got the news about the season getting moved, it made my heart drop a little bit. But then I thought, ‘You know what? I’ve got football right now.’ ”
Kamble Haverkamp was a Top 11 selection as a senior at Centralia. He, too, was selected for the Shrine Bowl; in fact, he was named East squad MVP after two interceptions and a few outstanding punts. He is heading to Kansas State in the fall. Like all Division I athletes, Haverkamp has no idea when he will play his next football game.
So he took time during the game to appreciate the work so many had put in to get him on the field.
“At halftime, everyone was ready to go for the third quarter, and I took a step back from everybody else,” Haverkamp said. “I took a second for myself, and I realized not everybody gets this opportunity, and I’m so thankful for it.”
The precautions during practice, as the Eagle reported Tuesday, and even during the game were many. Specators, media members, even coaches were required to wear masks at all times. There were temperature checks, and players were not allowed to meet with their families on the field after the game, one of the Shrine Bowl’s many traditions.
This year’s Shrine Bowl went through more than any in history. Before the game, Shrine Bowl Executive Director B.J. Harris said if the game kicked off Saturday, he might have to find a corner to weep.
Sunday morning, he and the others that made the 2020 Shrine Bowl possible can wake up knowing they put on a football game during the COVID-19 pandemic, provided 72 players the experience of a lifetime and raised thousands of dollars for the network of 22 Shriners Hospitals for Children.
“Everyone that had a responsibility to pull this game off came through,” Beason said. “We were all in this together. The Shriners, the players, the coaches, if we are all behind the same goal, tonight I couldn’t be prouder of this whole community. We did everything we needed to do. We followed the rules.
“And we showed we can still make football happen.”
This story was originally published July 19, 2020 at 12:55 AM with the headline "‘Best week of my life’: Football’s return unknown, but for one day ... it was back."