The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Area programs making up for lost 2020 season
Coming into the start of the track and field season, North Ridgeville coach James Shurtleff usually has a good idea of what his team’s lineup will look like.
Between the results from the previous year’s season and the intel he gained from the winter’s indoor season, Shurtleff tends a good idea of all of his returning returners while also beginning to piece together the skillset of all of the team’s newer runners.
That isn’t the case this year. When Shurtleff sat down March 15 and tried to figure out the Rangers’ lineup, he kept running into the same problem. He doesn’t know half his team.
With the novel coronavirus pandemic wiping out last year’s season, every track and field athlete in the area lost valuable competition time. For the seniors, it meant the end of their high school careers.
For the juniors and sophomores, it meant the loss of a year of valuable development. For the freshmen, it meant losing their introduction to high school track and field, something both the coaches and athletes feeling the repercussion from.
“Our team is a lot more inexperienced just because we were barely able to do anything last season,” Shurtleff said. “There are going to be a lot of teams trying to figure out who fits where early on. A lot of the sophomore haven’t had a full track season so in way they’re like freshmen all over again.”
Shurtleff isn’t the only area coach filling out his lineup card with pencil instead of pen.
While Columbia coach Adam Bailey hasn’t seen a ton of dropoff in terms of the quality of runners — with looking better than last year by his estimation — the field event athletes are having a hard time ramping up to where they normally are.
“They had a whole year off of not being able to jump or throw,” Bailey said. “So much of those events are based around technique so that’s coming around a little slower than usual.”
That said, Bailey uses the first month of the season to let his athletes figure out what events they want to do. That safety net becomes even more important this year.
“The first month of meets I’ll bounce kids all around to see what they like,” Bailey said. “We have 39 boys which is by far the most we’ve ever had. We have some depth so I’m going to bounce some kids around to try different things.”
That boom in numbers isn’t unique to the Raiders’ program, as most area programs are seeing a spike in attendance compared to years prior.
“The kids just want some sense of normalcy and I think spring sports are going to really provide that,” Westlake coach Travis Haselswerdt said. “Our numbers closer to 50 and I thought we’d peak at around 30. The kids are motivated and working hard. I haven’t had to pull anyone’s teeth or anything, everybody’s just happy to be out there.”
With the coronavirus protocols still in place, Shurtleff, Haselswerdt and Bailey have almost exclusively held outdoor practices since the spring sports season began on Feb. 22.
While there have been some minor blips of bad weather, the cool, mild spring has made the transition easier.
“We’ve kind of been pushing the limits of how often we could be outside,” Shurtleff said. “If it’s been
over 25 degrees, we’ve been outside. We went inside after that last snowstorm but whenever that melted, we were back outside.”
As one of Westlake’s cross-country coach, Haselswerdt was there in the fall when he had to consistently remind his runners to wear a mask and spread out.
Now — some five months later — all the
coronavirus protocols are old hat for the athletes and coaches.
“Everything’s like second nature compared to how it was in the fall,” Haselswerdt said. “Now the kids know what the expectations are. Social distancing is always a difficult thing to do but they’re much more cognizant of it. From a management perspective it’s easier than it
was in the fall.”
North Ridgeville and Westlake’s seasons are set to begin April 3 at Avon Lake’s Invitational while Columbia opens its season at Olmsted Falls at the end of March.
“It still feels really early, it’s hard to believe teams will be competing next week,” Shurtleff said. “I’m glad it’s here, we’re happy to be back.”