Halfway through the school year, we have seen the completion of the fall sports season as well as a good look into winter sports. While fall sports such as football saw some cancellations each week, winter sports have been a much different story. 

Due to the nature of basketball having smaller rosters, we have seen programs shutdown for weeks due to COVID-19, including both our women’s and men’s basketball programs. 

To make matters worse, the COVID-19 variant, which is 1.5 times more infectious than the normal virus, has already touched down on college athletics, reaching an athlete at the University of Michigan and putting the whole athletics program into a shutdown. News of the COVID-19 variant has caused panic in the realm of sports and has caused many to call for a shutdown of sports.

At this point, the pandemic has gotten no better and is continuing to risk our athletes’ health all just for the university and revenue. These unpaid student-athletes are putting their lives potentially on the line every time they go to practice or get on a bus to travel to an away game.

While newly approved vaccines from the Food and Drug Administration, such as Moderna and Pfizer, provide hope for a return to normality, the availability of the vaccine is not yet widespread, and is only currently available to the elderly as well as health care workers. While everyone agrees that student-athletes are not the top priority for the vaccine, cases for the vaccine to be fast-tracked to student-athletes are emerging.

The head coach for the University of Arizona’s women’s basketball team, Adia Barnes, has advocated for the vaccine to reach student-athletes. 

“If you want to have us compete and have a season and be able to play basketball, and we’re not in a bubble, I think that we have to get it because of the risk,” Barnes said in a press conference. “Or otherwise you’re going to see games canceled the whole year.”

Our student-athletes are asked to travel and compete against other schools without knowing the risk that university holds. The NC State men’s basketball team has already had seven games postponed or canceled due to contact tracing of the virus, either within its own program or an opposing program. Not only are these cases hindering the development of our team and its success, but it is giving our student-athletes a virus whose long-term effects are unknown.

In the midst of this deadly pandemic putting our lives on hold, we use our school’s athletics as an escape and a way to return to normalcy for just a small amount of time. Our student-athletes put their health on the line for every game and match for our entertainment. If we want to continue to watch our beloved Wolfpack and support our student-athletes, we have to put their health first and advocate for their vaccination. Otherwise, we cannot complain when our televisions are empty on a Saturday night.