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June 8 is the GHSA’s target date to open up conditioning for its member schools, and perhaps the first day of many for getting our community back on track to a sense of normalcy.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, school systems across the nation shut down in March, abruptly ending spring sports. Hundreds of kids in Bainbridge, including dozens of seniors, will not finish their high school sports careers the way they had dreamed of.

Safety was absolutely a priority, and our officials deemed the potential spread of the Coronavirus was not worth a spring sports season. Not just in high school, either—unless you’ve been living under a rock (honestly, I don’t blame you), nobody is playing sports in the U.S., from summer travel baseball all the way up to the big leagues.

The drought has been tough, and hopefully we are safer now because of it. But I know these athletes are ready to get back on the wagon and play the sports they love. Undoubtedly, things will look and feel a little bit different when sports finally do return, and those are changes that we will unfortunately have to live with for the foreseeable future. I believe a safe return to sports will go a long way toward helping our community regain its footing after two and a half months of social distancing and self-isolation, for athletes, coaches, families and fans alike.

I’m ready for June 8. I’m ready to return to our readers a Sports section that celebrates our community’s talented stars, where you can read about the Bainbridge football team’s next opponent, who drove in the winning run at a Lady Cats softball game, the lightning-quick 5K times from GCA’s cross-country team, or how many gigantic fish our Basscats reeled in at a recent tournament.

I hope y’all are ready, too.