This past weekend was the first time spectators were allowed to attend outdoor sporting events since the pandemic began.
This is a good thing for the athletes. It’s a lot more fun to compete when people are cheering on the sidelines. For youth sports in particular, seeing and hearing support from your loved ones is invaluable. Two boys gave gut-punch quotes to KHON2 about the absence of their families at their games: “I was mad they weren’t here,” one boy said. “I kinda felt like nobody really cared about me,” the other boy said.
Of course, whenever kids are affected, so are parents. The little extra salt in the wound was watching visitors congregate for beach parties while local parents were stuck in the parking lot trying to watch their kids play soccer 50 yards away. In the ongoing jungle gym of our local mandates, allowing families to watch sports outside together is a small but meaningful step.
But the truth is, watching sports is not just good for the people playing; it’s also good for the people watching, in ways that are distinctly relevant for us here in Hawaii…
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