July 15, 2020 at 11:15 a.m.
'You just have to keep moving'
Van Zile has no regrets over missed spring sports season
'You just have to keep moving'
Kenedy Van Zile readily admits she feels less of an emotional attachment to losing her final high school sports season than some of her Rhinelander High School class of 2020 classmates.
"I wish I could relate to my friends when they are upset about it, but I just don't," she said.
Van Zile has a matter-of-fact way at looking at the whole situation created by the coronavirus pandemic.
"I'm just like, 'We have more life to live,'" she said. "We're going to remember this, but we're not going to dwell on the past. Change is inevitable. Things are going to happen in life and you've just got to keep going through it. You can't sit and wait for everything to go back to normal. You just have to keep moving."
Van Zile said she was not interested in anyone feeling sorry for her or her classmates.
"I don't want everyone thinking this just affected the seniors," she said. "Yes, our last sports season didn't happen, but the younger kids - like the kids who don't have their temps (temporary driver's licenses) and were looking forward to that - they missed out on a lot of things too. I just don't want people to be, 'poor seniors.' What about the other kids, like the little kids who had to learn how to read online and things like that."
That's partly because Van Zile accomplished so much during a senior year that saw her become Rhinelander basketball's all-time leading scorer, partly because she will be playing women's college basketball this winter at UW-Oshkosh and partly because she had taken a flier and joined track for her senior spring season after playing soccer all of her childhood.
Van Zile was in that midst of that change in early March before the pandemic took hold. Fresh off a trip to the sectional semifinals with the Lady Hodag basketball team, Van Zile decided to give track a whirl and was just a couple of practices in when the season came to an end.
"When I used to go to basketball tryouts and things like that, a lot of coaches would be like, 'You run track?' I'd be like, 'No, I play soccer.' Then a bunch of them would be like, 'You'd go to state if I coached you,'" Van Zile said, explaining the reasons she made the switch. "That's why I wanted to try it and see if I was able to make it somewhere, because I've never made it to state in anything and I thought maybe, with the right coaching and learning the right techniques, I'd make it to state this year."
The way Van Zile saw it, running track was a low-risk scenario with a potentially high reward.
"I had nothing to lose, honestly. I had already finished my main sports and had two great seasons," she said. "I think I would have done pretty well. I wanted to run the 400. I didn't really know what I was going to be doing but (head track) coach (Aaron Kraemer) said I'd probably be pretty good at it."
Van Zile admitted that staying on task was more of a challenge for her in the less-structured environment of virtual learning and training.
"The only hard thing about it was the school portion and staying on top of things, getting things done on time. It was hard," she said. "It's pretty hard trying to weight lift and do stuff that's inside a gym," she said. "Usually it's just like going outside and trying to figure out something you can do outside, or watching a YouTube video and following along. Hopefully the school gym will be open (soon) and I can go in and shoot, and use the weight room in there. But I'm just not sure with everything that's going on how things are going to play out."
When interviewed, Van Zile said she was planning to forgo the abbreviated spring season that would have culminated this week with competitions. The School District of Rhinelander's pandemic response team later struck down that plan in a June 23 meeting.
"I'm probably just going to move on," she said prior to the district's decision. "I know a lot of my senior friends are looking forward to it and wanting to play their last season but, like I said before, I'm already just kind of moving on to the next stage of my life and I'm excited for it, hopefully, if the world ends up OK."
There was still one prep sports-related event Van Zile was looking foward to, the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association All-Star Game. At the time of the interview, the event had been postponed from June to August. The event was later scrapped all together by the WBCA due to the coronavirus pandemic. Van Zile, and teammate Cynthia Beavers, were scheduled to be on the Division 2 North roster which was to be coached by Rhinelander head coach Ryan Clark.
Now it's on to Oshkosh, though Van Zile admitted to having some trepidation about the move, especially considering the uncertainly as to what extent the virus will flare up again this winter.
"It's frustrating not knowing what's going to happen next," she said. "Is there going to be another season (that's canceled)? I know Oshkosh is going back but everyone's required to wear a mask. How are we supposed to play sports if everyone's required to wear masks and stay six feet apart? It's just the unknown that scares me."
Last Thursday, the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents voted unanimously to require the use of facemasks inside buildings at all 26 UW campuses this coming school year.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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