One of the many challenges that students, specifically student athletes, in MCPS face during the coronavirus pandemic is the loss of sports.
During the spring and summer, virtually all sports leagues ceased athletic activities, leaving many without what is a crucial part of their lives, while also deriving them of the social interaction and competition that comes with sports.
Many saw the fall as an opportunity to return to sports, but with MCPS prohibiting school-affiliated in-person sports, athletes turned their focus to club teams to resume their athletic pursuits.
Although many were eager to return to playing their respective sports, major changes had to be made and precautions were taken to balance play and safety.
“There are a couple of rule changes for soccer during the pandemic,” Blake HS Junior Elliot Kirwan said, “There are no headers right now in my league.”
“We can’t do throw-ins… we have to do kick-ins,” Kirwan added.
Soccer isn’t the only sport with game-altering precautions. Volleyball is another sport in which club teams are being very careful to avoid virus transmission.
“This year, everyone is wearing masks during practices, sanitizing after water breaks, and minimizing high fives and physical contact. Along with these adjustments, local tournaments have different restrictions…” Northwest HS Junior Andrew Ahn said.
While those that play contact sports are more likely to endure increased precautions, athletes in other sports, such as golf, have experienced minimal changes.
“[This year] is kind of similar, actually, because golf really never required you to be around too many people,” Richard Montgomery HS Junior Upaasna Yadav said, “The only thing that’s different is that in a tournament setting, we play with less people.”
Because of the uncertainty behind the pandemic, it is difficult to predict how long preventative measures will continue to be present.
“I don’t have any knowledge on how long the precautions will last but my guess will be that we’ll be using these precautions year round,” Ahn said.
“I think for golf it’s gonna last for the next season, so probably until summer of 2021, that’s what they said so far, is that they’re going to decide what to do around May or June of 2021,” Yadav said.
“I’m hoping that we’ll be able to do high school [sports] in the spring,” Kirwan said.
Despite the yearning to return to the field, athletes had to carefully consider the risks that playing during a pandemic causes.
“I started late this year, because I was seeing whether there were [coronavirus] cases that were coming out of golf tournaments. My parents and I decided collectively that the risks were very little if we took necessary precautions…” Yadav said.
For others, trust in the precautions put in place and in their own teammates was a deciding factor. “I definitely put some thought into it because I think it’s an important decision with the pandemic and everything. In the end I decided, not necessarily that it was worth the risk, but that we could minimize the risks enough with proper precautions,” Kirwan said.
While mitigation of risk is one reason why many athletes are resuming their sports, the benefits of playing sports are often underestimated, and many players decide that the upsides ultimately outweigh the potential risks.
“It’s definitely a good breather from just doing online school,” Kirwan said, “It’s nice to have a way to get some physical activity and get a break from sitting around and staring at a screen all day.”
Many students have eagerly seized the opportunity to return to their club teams, even with the unorthodox adjustments leagues have made. While it may no longer be the sense of normalcy there once was, athletes agree that it is certainly better than no sports at all.
Article by Corrigan Peters of Richard Montgomery High School
Picture Courtesy of Pexels Photos