Sports Beat
Dave Boehler
Beacon Sports Editor

NORTH’S RESTON MOREHOUSE and his family moved from Wyoming to Wisconsin in March, just as the pandemic was getting started. He was in school for three days and then classes were cancelled, and he also missed out on his first high school baseball season – Submitted photo

Reston Morehouse’s first day of class at Sheboygan North is today.

Hopefully the senior gets to stay more than three days this time.

“It definitely sucked,” he said. “I thought (COVID-19) would last maybe two months.”

Not only did Morehouse and his family move from Wyoming during the start of the pandemic, he attended his new school for only 20-plus hours when the governor cancelled classes across the state in March.

On top of that, Morehouse was unable to play on a high school baseball team for the first time – his school in Laramie did not offer it – because sports were also wiped out in the spring.

“Heartbreaking, kind of,” he said.

Then someone tattled on him for playing basketball with his sister in a park earlier this summer and now he’s getting ready to return to school only knowing a few people – mostly future teammates.

“Being involved in baseball and basketball kind of helped, so I guess it really isn’t that bad,” Morehouse said.

Can it get any worse?

We’ve all been complaining how awful 2020 has been, and the Morehouse family did not waste any time the year off to a memorable start.

On Jan. 1, Morehouse’s father moved to Sheboygan by himself for his new job. He was alone until the rest of the family left Laramie and joined him in Wisconsin on March 9.

During Morehouse’s three days at North, he was able to meet the baseball coach and got to know the team’s catcher because he was in one of his classes.

But soon attending school and meeting new friends was no longer an option.

“I knew at some point it was going to return back to normal, which I hope is soon,” Morehouse said.

In the spring, he continued to work out and did some things online with North coaches Steve Goes (baseball) and Eric Worth (basketball).

“They were extremely helpful in reaching out to their players and welcoming Reston to the sports family right away – even though it was a virtual welcome,” Morehouse’s mother, Janelle said. “He was able to check in and have zoom meetings to ‘see’ some of his teammates.

“Being from Wyoming, we are huge outdoorsmen. We love hunting, fishing, hiking, and all sports. We just like being outside. So COVID was a challenge. Before we left, things were pretty normal since it is a state of 500,000 people. So there wasn’t a real fear of the virus there. …

“When everything got shut down it was challenging to find our place here, as you can imagine.” 

To make matters worse, Reston’s mother says he and his sister (a junior at North) were ‘turned in’ one day in the summer because the siblings would spend time in parks shooting hoops or doing long toss with a baseball.

“Even though they lived in the same house, they were made to leave,” Janelle said. “At that time, we were frustrated because there weren’t many outlets for us, especially not knowing anyone. We made it through, as perseverance and just depending on each other helped with that. Reston never gave up, continued to train, practice and throw bullpen sessions into a net until he could face live batters. He is excited for what’s to come. We all are.

“We love the area.”