Coaches managing a balancing act

Large number of rosters are filled with players with very limited experience

While this high school spring season brings a breath of relief in giving athletes the chance to be back out competing, its biggest challenge for coaches will be balancing two classes of underclassmen who have no high school competition experience.

Outside of seniors and juniors, this year’s sophomores lost their freshman seasons last spring due to the pandemic, while many of this year’s freshmen haven’t played organized spring sports for their school since seventh grade.

Just a few weeks into the season, high school spring sports coaches are learning what it takes to manage a team with inexperienced underclassmen and upperclassmen who have never been in leadership positions until now. While they’ve had to refocus practices and put more trust in their seniors, these coaches understand this season is going to take a lot of patience and a lot of rebuilding.

With about half of the athletes on their rosters having very limited experience in their sports and no experience playing for their high schools teams, coaches are prioritizing teaching game fundamentals and breaking down basic skills during practices instead of focusing on learning specific plays and drills. For many coaches, building their teams this year is almost like starting from scratch.

“When you come from seventh grade and then your next experience is a varsity program, the culture, the climate, the attitude is different,” said Ben Levy, Fairfield Warde’s girls’ lacrosse coach. “It’s just taking time for these kids who have been in and out of school because of the pandemic — in and out of classrooms; quarantined, not quaran