The lost spring seniors: COVID-19's impact on Sumter, Clarendon, Lee high school athletes, Part XII

All our coronavirus coverage is free to the public. It’s the right thing to do as a public service to our community. If you find this article helpful or informative and want to support our continued coverage, please support us with a tax-deductible donation.

To find all our coronavirus coverage, including helpful local resources and website links, click here.

---

Senior athletes in spring sports have lost out on most of their final high school seasons because of the coronavirus, so The Sumter Item wanted to hear from them about what that lost spring means to them. The Item will be running this series over the next several editions to give them a voice during their lost spring.

Katherine Burns – Laurence Manning soccer, track and field

“To lose my spring season, it hurts and is frustrating . I was participating in two sports: soccer and track. I missed a couple of the first soccer games due to being on the SCISA All Star Basketball team. I was so excited and honored to have that opportunity. I then had to focus on my next sports. It hurts that senior year has not gone as planned. We, as a class at LMA, have faced many hard times just this past school year, so spring sports being taken feels like a punch to the face. I hate not being able to play with my teammates and not being able to make new memories with them.”

Shawn Charles – Manning baseball

“This is very disappointing because I’ve worked so hard amongst the rest of the senior class for this year to be perfect and for all of the work that we put into this year. It truly hurts to not be able to finish out my senior baseball season. This year we had good pitching and my team would not give up if we are down if we were down, we would fight till the last out of the game. I believe that we had a team this year that would have shocked a lot of teams. we had 4 people on our team this year going off to college to play baseball including and I’d like to thank all of my coaches for helping me get to that point. And this year I’ve learn that not everything is guaranteed because who would have thought that my senior year would get cut short by a virus. These boys on manning baseball had big hearts and we got together very easily this year we just had a different mentality and a different chemistry to where we were not accepting any loses and we were picking each and every player up on our team and we was a family this year. And for all of the seniors that play spring sports keep your head up and keep it pushing cause there more better things ahead god has a path for you and this is just the beginning. #10out”

Sierra Logan – Manning softball

“What does losing my spring season feel like to me? I’m heartbroken. My heart has always belonged to the game, even through the times it broke my heart, I still loved it. Softball has taught me to overcome many battles, but mostly the battles within myself. this game has given me more than I could ever possibly give it. Sad to say I’ll never put on this jersey again, but happy to say it left me with memories that’ll last me a thousand lifetimes.”

Christian Campbell Sumter track and field

“As a senior losing my final track season it means a lot to me. It is very unfortunate that the season was cut early. I love to run and it was like the race was over before it even started.”

MarQue Stacks - Crestwood track and field

“Losing my spring season to makes me feel mad only because there was so many things I wanted to accomplish like making it to state with my teammates before the end of my senior year.”