Embracing adversity

stay sharp. For coaches and their support staffs, the challenge is obvious.

“You’re talking teenagers here,” said Knott, who is also an assistant football coach at Westhill. “Now, you have to get the motivation to get up and do this by yourself. It’s not easy. … The accountability aspect is a challenge.”

Digital coaching

How are high school and college athletes coping while remaining home day after day? Creatively, and with a lot of help.

Teammates and coaches connect virtually. Strength and fitness coordinators deliver workout options digitally. Mental health providers connect through Zoom or FaceTime.

It takes a village stitched together by a WiFi connection.

“It's been an interesting situation and it's been a different situation,” said Brijesh Patel, Quinnipiac’s strength and conditioning coach. “We're so used to operating with our kids on a group basis and we see them one-on-one and we see him train all the time.”

Patel and his staff have connected to Quinnipiac athletes through various platforms. They have taken stock of what each athlete can do at home — Is there home equipment or access to the outside? — before creating a unique workout.

That’s been the routine of many high school and college programs. Knott is a personal sports performance coach at Stamford-based BlueStreak Sports Training, working

Beyond the physical concerns, though, is the emotional wellbeing. Knott said he senses kids are “anxious” as they wonder when school and sports will resume. There have also been waves of emotion, from the jarring end of the sports calendar in March, to resignation and sadness to uncertainty.

Dr. Sheryl Smith, a Cheshire psychologist who works with teams and individual athletes, has been talking to her clients about living with the uncertainty and “capitalizing on the adversity.”

“A lot of athletes have been approaching this as a challenge to grow, and they’re branching out with their communication skills so that they are staying connected with teammates in ways that they never have before, which is a real bonus,” Smith said. “Adapt and grow is basically the mantra that we’re using here.”

Said Patel: “You're putting the onus on the kid, and I think that develops accountability and that's what we're in the business of doing — we're trying to prepare them for the rest of their lives so we've got to hold them accountable and and give them some responsibility so that they can actually learn.”

Patel, who began his career at UConn in the 1990s, compares the

Matthew Brown / Hearst Connecticut Media Trainer Ali Knott works with athlete Ben Pennella, a junior at Westhill High School, Wednesday at Pennella’s workout studio in his family’s garage in Stamford. Knott conducts virtual workouts and visits athletes while wearing masks and distancing as much as possible. Below, Pennella works out.