Finding a way to play sports in college is already an extremely long and challenging road for many high school athletes, and like many things so far in 2020, it has become even more difficult.

Collegiate athletic programs across the country are being forced to eliminate some sports due to financial constraints caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, over 200 collegiate teams have been dissolved since the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak including many that hit close to home—both literally and figuratively. Nearby Stanford University has recently had to cut 11 varsity sports, including field hockey, men’s volleyball, and wrestling. Also, Boise State’s newly revived baseball program—former home to recent Mitty graduate Joe Yorke—has again hit the shelf due to financial issues. These losses have devastated many current college athletes, and as this pandemic draws on, could prove to have an even greater impact on high school athletes.

According to senior Logan Hipp of the Men’s Volleyball team, “Colleges such as Stanford who have cut sports will not only impact current college athletes, but also high schoolers planning to advance to the college level.”

James Shaw, an alumni of the Stanford Men’s Volleyball team and current member of the United States National team, agrees. He explains, “Stanford’s decision to cut men’s volleyball not only affects the boys in the immediate Bay Area who dreamed of one day playing for Stanford, but an entire nation’s worth of high-achieving student-athletes who had their sights set on such a goal.”

This is the reality that student-athletes will have to accept in the upcoming years until schools are able to rebound from the financial deficits caused by the Coronavirus. Of course, by then, thousands of high school athletes will have lost the chance to compete in college, their careers marking another casualty of the COVID-19 outbreak.