[displacedinMN]

This woman needs to go away

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — Kennedy Klick was having a dream season with the DeLaSalle girls basketball team. Cruising through to the Class 3A State title game.

"Out of nowhere we all just started getting texts," Kennedy recalls. "From different friends and teachers telling us the games were canceled."

Canceled. Like nearly every other sporting event -- as the coronavirus continues to bring the world to a standstill.

"I kind of felt crushed," Kennedy says.

"It's just, like, this empty feeling for all of them," said Kennedy's mother Betsy Klick-Towah.

So Betsy took matters into her own hands. She started a change.org petition to get the Minnesota State High school league to consider postponing the games instead of cancelling them.

"I think the leadership and the precautions that we're taking is all great," said Betsy. "I think just having a date or saying that it's postponed right now would just make things better for everyone."

Erich Martens is the MSHSL Executive director. As a parent and former high school coach, he said he understand how difficult this is to deal with for families of high school athletes.

"I know the connection. The deep relationships that are built," said Martens. "The buy-in and desire to have this experience to last as long as it can."

Any closure will likely have a number of hurdles to overcome. Things like seniors going to college, getting enough time for practices if and when they could re-start and how to handle multisport athletes.

"Now our spring sports are really on hold for a certain amount of time," said Martens. "So to think about going back and redoing and trying to fit that back together is something that we're not considering at this time. But should things happen faster or we come back together, we always look at the newest situations and try to make the best decisions,"

The Klick's know it's a long shot, but they also know a shot won't go in unless you take it.

"We just want some hope," says Klick-Towah.