After Senn High School student Davion Holmes was named captain of the football team, and won a spot on the varsity basketball team, too, the lifelong athlete dreamed of spending his junior year competing on the court and gridiron with his friends and teammates.

But the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a formidable rival, crushing the athletic seasons for both sports at the Chicago high school. These days, when Holmes is not behind his laptop in a Zoom classroom, he’s earning extra cash working at a neighborhood Wendy’s restaurant.

“They took away all of the joy, and left us with nothing but hom

ework,” said Holmes, who despite facing the disappointment of having his athletic experiences upended during the pandemic, remains hopeful that he still may be able to salvage the tail-end of his high school years.

“I have a lot of motivation, especially because my mom is a nurse, and she’s been working hard on the front lines throughout the pandemic, and we’re kind of competitive, so it makes me want to do better,” Holmes said.

Nearly one year after the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, students across Chicago and the suburbs say when it comes to high school, the thrill is gone, with simple pleasures such as huddling with friends in the hallways and catching up over lunch in the cafeteria displaced by a dystopian landscape of remote learning and virtual extracurriculars.