So far, things remain on course for CIAC’s spring sports

The fall season for high school sports featured its interruptions from a steady bout with eastern equine encephalitis and yet its student-athletes received the chance to write the storybook endings they envisioned.

The winter season came to an abrupt end at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, with the announcement that the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference

was canceling the remainder of state tournament play in boys' and girls' basketball, hockey and boys' swimming due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus.

Immediately, worries were directed to spring.

The CIAC allows pitchers and catchers for baseball to report on Saturday. Practice for the remainder of spring athletes is set to begin Saturday, March 21. Opening day is slated for Saturday, April 4.

"I want to believe that. That's the only way I can operate right now," Waterford High School softball coach Andy Walker said late Tuesday afternoon, asked of the likelihood of an on-time start for spring sports. "Just the way this has been snowballing, I'm a little worried about what's going to happen to the beginning of our season, how this affects the ability to complete our schedule.

"I'm very hopeful we can prepare for the season and play at Killingly on April 4. Our seniors, all our girls, would be disappointed if that didn't happen, as well. I've already heard from a few of them. They heard the boys' basketball team wasn't playing tonight ... a few of my seniors were texting me, hoping for the best."

Glenn Lungarini, executive director of the CIAC, said in a press conference Tuesday morning that at this time, spring sports will follow their predetermined timeline, but said that could change should member schools decide to close.

"At this time, I don't have any guidance regarding outdoor activities. The big difference that I think we see between the winter and the spring is that boys' volleyball is the only spring sport that is held indoors and we're more than a month away from games and that.

"And so at this point we are not restricting the start of spring sports. Those are all at outside venues."

For Walker's Waterford softball team, not only is there the matter of defending its Class M state championship from a year ago, the team is also getting a new on-campus artificial turf field this season. Walker jokes that because he likes to "think big," he's been referring to it as Lancer Stadium, but it's more likely to be dubbed Lancer Park.

"We have our first home game against Masuk on Saturday (April 11)," he said. "We are excited to open the field on that day."

East Lyme's girls' lacrosse team is also set to defend its Class M state title.

The Vikings will need to replace nine seniors, seven of them starters, and 11th-year coach Phil Schneider is hoping a new group of players can form their own identity.

East Lyme will host a preseason camp Tuesday through Friday next week for high school players from a number of area schools where each coaching staff will coach a different group of athletes than their own.

"The weather's been so good. We haven't had any real winter," Schneider said. "You feel like you should be out there playing now. The way Steve (Hargis, athletic director) does it, you can have contact with your players five weeks before the season. So in mid-February I start talking to them a little bit."

Waterford athletic director Chris Landry has a meeting scheduled with his spring coaches on March 16.

So far, everything is ready to go for spring.

"Obviously with the coronavirus, things are kind of fluid, things could change at any minute," Landry said. "We're certainly bummed out about our swim team, our boys' basketball team ... it's the CIAC's call and we respect that. For now, our goal is to make sure we get ready for spring sports, on my end make adjustments as needed, make sure we're ready to go. There's certainly been no directives by administration on anything to do with spring."

"I think we have to go ahead as planned," East Lyme's Hargis said. "I don't think we should get ahead of ourselves; if a decision is made that it's the correct thing to do (to stop) or what we're asked to do, safety is our No. 1 for athletes and fans. But before that we have to continue our daily thing, whatever we do."