Football season comes to abrupt end
Athletic Department cancels season day before playoffs
Junior center John Swindlehurst holds the ball during a game against Waconia Oct. 16. Park won the game 49-14.
November 17, 2020
Hours away from Park’s last practice before its playoff game against Irondale, the team received a notification from the Athletic Department that the season had come to an end. According to junior captain Christian Arteaga, the team had first been notified that practice had been canceled and was given the news of the season-ending later on.
“An hour or two before we were going to have practice we got a text from our coach that practice was going to be canceled due to a possible COVID interruption,” Arteaga said. “Ever since then I was super attached to my phone, waiting for some follow up news and what was gonna happen next.”
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According to junior captain Will Dvorak, he was surprised by the news as he was prepared to play against Irondale.
“I was pretty shocked because I expected to at least be able to get one more game tomorrow,” Dvorak said. “So I was probably shocked and then kind of hit with like, you know that feeling like, ‘Wow we’re really done.’”
Sophomore Henry Bendickson said he particularly felt bad for the seniors as this is their final season.
“They (the seniors) weren’t really expected to have the season taken from them, it was planned for but still it kind of always sucks to have something taken away from you that fully ready for,” Bendickson said.
Arteaga said even though the season was shortened, he still cherished the time he got to play
“I’m looking at this as positively as I can. Going into every game that we had this season I kind of played it like it was going to be my last,” Arteaga said. “Overall I’m just thankful for the six games that we had and for the games that we did have I made sure to leave it on the field for, and tough news that we had to take today.”
