Moving forward, cautiously
High school sports practices begin with safety at forefront
There were plenty of good reasons for those small cohorts before Monday, but Emma French and Amanda Campos, two of Masuk’s girls soccer captains, were glad to see them go for one particular reason.
“We’re very close, a family, a team,” French said Monday at Benedict Field. “That honestly was the hardest part for
me, only being able to bond with five or six other players the first month of school. I’m very social. So is Amanda. Especially for us as leaders, it’s really hard to be a leader when you’re only working with like six people.”
It’s been a long road to get to this point. No high school contests have been played since March 9 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The CIAC canceled the remainder of its winter postseason tournaments the next day. Then the state’s governing high school body canceled its entire spring season in early May.
In the age of the coronavirus, conditioning in cohorts was an absolute necessity. Fall sports teams have been practicing in cohorts of the same 10 people since July 6, save for a week in August when the CIAC paused all conditioning to review recommendations from the state Department of Health.
Fall sports teams were able to begin non-skill development on Aug. 29 in those same cohorts. The move to full practices on Monday went from low to moderate risk.
All fall sports — except football, which had its 11 on 11 contact season canceled on Sept. 4 — can begin having scrimmages Saturday, followed by the start of the regular season no earlier than Oct. 1. Fall sports include boys and girls cross country, boys and girls soccer, field hockey, girls swimming and girls volleyball.
Members of the Masuk girls soccer team were at last all together Monday night, building those relationships that make sports so memorable.
“We’re all friends,” Campos said. “Even if I’m a senior and they’re a freshman, we have some good conversations. Outside of soccer, not one person here does not hang out (with teammates) outside of soccer.”
At Trumbull, the girls’ soccer team practiced under the watchful eye of coach Rich Sutherland. Two games took place on adjoining halves of Sebe Gangemi Field. Players not involved sat six feet apart. All water bottles were numbered for individual players. Individuals brought their own ball, which was cleaned before and after by that player.
Now with the team component in place, the bag of balls going forward will be cleaned after each session by the coaches. Everyone wore masks to and from the field. Coaches kept masks on throughout.
Waiting for their practice to begin, the Trumbull boys gathered on a hill outside the fields keeping social distance and wearing masks. Prior to practice, the players walked to coach Sil Vitiello in a staggered line. He checked on his phone to make sure that they are approved that day from a school-mandated online health screen. If approved, Vitiello takes their temperature and keeps a record every day.
Getting their team motivated through the summer, Shelton’s girls soccer captains said, wasn’t all that easy, not knowing if this Monday, let alone Oct. 1, was actually coming.
“It was definitely scary,” Elizabeth Porto said. “This is our senior year. We’ve been looking forward to this since forever.”
They got their wish Monday at Finn Stadium, progressing from two players passing a ball back and forth right up to a full-team scrimmage in the last minutes of practice.
“It was just exciting to play 11-v-11 after a month of just cohorts and conditioning,” Porto said.
“It definitely is exciting just getting back to normal,” Devan Wildman added.
Sarah Panek said this was what the newcomers in particular were waiting for after weeks of cohort conditioning. It wasn’t that it was hard, but it was much different from what they were used to.
Adding in a little more contact and proximity wasn’t too concerning.
“I feel like we’ve been with these girls for so long,” Panek said. “We’ve been doing little conditioning stuff with them, so it’s not that scary.”
Masuk graduated a senior class that was very close, including four-year standout Kacey Lawrence, now at Michigan. This year’s freshman class seems to be the same, but French and Campos said they’re integrating well already.
Without the preseason camp to get to know each other, and battling through a long stretch of fitness tests and distanced drills, it has been tough. Their fellow co-captain Rachel Hersch said she has been trying to stay positive through the months of waiting.
“Your attitude and the way you prepare yourself as a player stands out and makes your team stand out,” French said.
For all the trials, that attitude seems pretty mature, at least in the captains, with lots of talk about how fortunate the Panthers are to have a season.
“For most of us, we’ve been playing since we were 5, 6 years old,” Campos said. “One of (French’s) best friends plays on Notre Dame (-Fairfield). We were upset that we weren’t going to play them, so they set up a scrimmage for us.
“Yes, disappointing, no end goal to try to work toward, but it is still our senior year.”
“Make the most of it,” French said.
Campos said she has reminded the underclassmen that they have other seasons to look forward to; they can use this year to make a statement to the coaches that they belong.
“We’re going to make the best of it, make a good run for it,” coach Jay Goleski said. “The girls understand there’s no state championship, no SWC championship, no voting (for postseason honors). It’s a tough mental state to be in with no reward at the end, but mentally, they’re staying strong.”
Designing the past few weeks of practice was a challenge, Shelton coach Marvin Miller said. There was a lot of work on ball skills, some positioning.
“You’ve got to give them activities that let them work on movement, shape, that allowed them to keep distancing. We had to be a little creative,” Miller said.
“We worked really hard on the conditioning part,” he added. “We’ll find out in a week in our first scrimmage. We’ll be pushing hard this week.”
The Gaels have played for an SCC championship the past two years, winning in 2018, and have had other successful years. This year, there won’t be postseason play, and for some, that might put a damper on whatever season one might get, even during a pandemic.
“Not for us,” Miller said, and his captains agreed. “We don’t define success by banners. It’s not our philosophy around here. We have measures of our performance, and that’s what we measure success by.
“It’s the journey that’s important, not just the prize.”