Area high school sports return after a long wait
High school sports in Wisconsin cleared an important hurdle Monday. They started.
The day marked the first chance for prep sports practice in boys and girls cross country, girls swimming and diving, girls golf and girls tennis. Not counting the voluntary summer workouts and contact days some schools allowed last month, this marks the first time teams have practiced since the coronavirus pandemic caused schools to shutdown in-person instruction in March.
The area, however, wasn't filled with teams returning to action. Some schools have already chose to not play fall sports and will likely take advantage of the alternate fall season the WIAA will offer in the spring. Others, like the Woodland Conference, opted to delay the start of practice for those sports by one week. And yet others, like the Milwaukee Public Schools and the districts of Racine, Kenosha and Waukesha school districts, have put athletic activities on hold until a decision about fall sports is made.
If you're looking for football, boys soccer or boys and girls volleyball, you have to wait until Sept. 7 for the start of those seasons.
So with that in mind, here is how Day 1 looked at various spots around the area.
A busy day at St. Thomas More
Compared to other schools inside Milwaukee's city limits, St. Thomas More was bustling. On Day 1 of the season, the Cavaliers' boys and girls cross country team and girls tennis team practiced on campus. The swim team was a stone's throw away at Deer Creek Middle School and the golf team was taking swings at Grant Park.
Thomas More is unique. With part of its land in Milwaukee and a larger portion in St. Francis, the school, according to athletic director John Hoch, falls under the jurisdiction of the St. Francis/South Milwaukee health department. With help from that office, the Cavaliers were able to cap its first day of classes with not only those after school activities but also a basketball open gym and three rotations of weight training in the fitness center.
“Just getting kids back here and them starting to do athletics, and them being able to be with their teammates albeit 6 feet apart is really heart-warming to see,” Hoch said.
Before starting practice each athlete had their temperature taken; no one with a temperature higher than 100.4 could participate. In addition to the standard social distancing rules, each basketball player in the gym was required to wear a mask.
Meanwhile, the school plans to have students rotate between virtual and inperson learning every two days. Monday was also the first day of school.
“This is a different year,” Hoch said. “I think the focus has changed a little bit from can we win the conference championship, how many games can we win to focusing on can we get our kids together, can we start to have comradarie as a team. Can we do things the right way and have it hold for the entire season and complete a season.”
Homestead takes season day by day
One of the most successful girls tennis programs in the state was back on the courts at 9 a.m., but none of the talk revolved around possibly winning a fifth consecutive state championship.
“We're all just so excited,” head coach Jackie Egelhoff said. “I'm feeling privileged, I think, that we have an opportunity because, as a coach, I go back to the boys not having a season in the spring. That was devastating to the seniors that worked hard.
“We're going to take it day-to-day knowing that each practice could be our last one if something happens, so we want to have fun, enjoy being with each other and getting exercise.”
The Highlanders were together once again, just not in close proximity. Players who weren't in a match were required to wear masks and spaced out on the bleachers. Athletes from other sports such cross country and girls swim exited practice near the tennis courts also were masked up.
Egelhoff said that about 40 girls came out for the first day, which is typical. The Homestead staff thought there was a chance for even more athletes to come out than usual because tennis is among the sports in which it's easiest to safely distance.
“I managed to teach in a tennis club all summer, so I kind of knew we could do this safely,” Egelhoff said.
The competition season begins already next week, although Egelhoff and other area coaches will have to do some schedule adjusting as they figure out which schools aren't competing and which ones are limiting travel to specific areas.
“Our number of meets is down a bit now, but I think once we know who's playing and who isn't, that will get the coaches on the phone and start rearranging,” she said.
At Oak Creek, the Knights rise early
If it wasn't already apparent to the members of Oak Creek's boys and girls cross country teams that this season would be different than any they experienced before, they learned quickly.
Before hitting the streets Monday morning, the runners received a primer on what to expect this season. A communal sport, the runners won't be able to go on practice runs in the large packs you've seen running through your neighborhoods in past years. The team tents, the hub of a team's activity during meets, won't work in this age of social distancing. And when it comes to saliva, the message was keep it to yourself. No spitting is allowed.
“We want them to have a season and go through a postseason and keep everyone healthy and in order to do that, they need to understand the importance of showing up with a mask on, keeping a mask on if they can't social distance and making sure they're being accountable to their teammates at night when they go home,” athletic director Scott Holler said.
Many of the team's runners also missed out on track season, which was derailed by virus-related school closings and eventually the cancellation of the state meet. Among the group was standout junior Isabela Ross, the two-time defending Southeast Conference champion and the 13th-place finisher at the Division 1 state meet last fall.
This year there is no guarantee of a state meet. The regular season has dwindled, too. Oak Creek's schedule has been whittled from seven meets to three, including the Southeast Conference meet.
“We have to keep the motivation of the runners going,” Oak Creek coach Paul Soto said. “Intrinsically they should be selfmotivated, but it's always nice to see where you're at and that is what the meets do for us, they give us a barometer of where our fitness level is. Without that it's hard to keep that motivation and to keep training hard.”
Bay knows there are no guarantees
At times Olivia Eckes wondered if there would be any tennis season at all. So yes, she was happy to be on the court Monday.
“Everyone is happy we can come out and play still and have a good season even though it may be shorter,” the Whitefish Bay senior said. “We'll make the sacrifices and still be able to play out here with each other.”
For the first practice, Bay coach Trevor Hill split tryouts into three groups: varsity, junior varsity and JV2. About 50 players were out, which is comparable to other years.
Six of those players were on varsity last year. Many others were part of the JV team that won the North Shore Conference title. Eckes, the team's No. 2 singles player last season, is a returning state qualifier.
“I think we're going to be strong, but this is one of those years when we're not necessarily playing for a berth to go to state, we're just trying to get through as much of the season as we can and take it week by week,” Hill said.