IN SPORTS: FIRST SPORTS RETURN TO LUSD
The Lodi High girls tennis team took to the court on Tuesday and walked away with a 6-3 win over St. Mary’s.
At the same time, Lodi’s boys golf team was beating St. Mary’s by a single stroke at Woodbridge Country Club. Tokay’s boys golf team had its first Tri-City Athletic League match on Wednesday.
“We have 21 girls that are so excited to be outside playing tennis and interacting with one another,” said Shelby Wunsch, Lodi’s tennis coach. “I haven’t had one complaint about COVID restrictions. They are just happy to be out of the house!”
The TCAL is back in action, and athletic competition has returned to Lodi Unified campuses — in a limited capacity and with restrictions.
“It’s pretty cool. Our first competition is today for golf, they travel to Tracy to play West,’ said Tokay Athletic Director Michael Holst. “It’s pretty cool, just a bus with kids doing stuff is crazy. There’s a whole bus for our
golfers. Just that is a little different.”
At Lodi High, Athletic Director Robert Winterhalter said the players and athletes have been excited.
“I think it’s great. I’ve made it out to each of the practices, and the kids are positive, coaches are positive,” Winterhalter said. “If kids are asked to wear masks, they’re all doing it. There’s no questions about why we’re out there right now.”
For now, with most of the state still in the Purple Tier in the state’s color-coded COVID-19 tier system, matches will go on without spectators. In fact, the only people allowed to be present at competitions right now are players and paid coaches — even volunteer coaches are banned.
“We’re going to try to livestream as much as we can,” Winterhalter said. “Right now it’s pretty bare bones, just me out there with a tablet trying to livestream to Youtube.”
Winterhalter will be streaming Lodi’s track and field meet against St. Mary’s today at 2:30 p.m., and the Flames’ swim meet Friday, also against St. Mary’s, at 3:30 p.m. The events will be at https://youtu.be/-R3A4WVFIPQ.
It’s been nearly a year since athletic events have taken place on Lodi Unified campuses — the district went on its spring break in mid-March in 2020, and students still have not returned to campus.
Sports conditioning was allowed over the summer, and that’s where it stayed until late January, when schools were allowed to move forward with planning their seasons.
Winterhalter said throughout that time, the school’s teams haven’t had any close brushes with the pandemic.
“We’ve had close calls, where like somebody else in their family tested positive, so we made sure they sat out for 10 days, made sure they tested negative,” Winterhalter said. “Everybody understands what happens if they’re not honest with their own health. Anybody tests positive, that team is shut down for at least 10 days.”
Last week, California Department of Public Health laid out guidelines for a path to contact sports such as football and water polo to be played, with weekly COVID-19 testing, in counties with a case rate between 7 and 14 per 100,000 population. Holst reiterated that he is cautiously optimistic for the start of football, which is scheduled for March 19
“We had a parent meeting last night to lay out possible scenarios,” Holst said, “and it definitely puts the kids in a tough position to have to choose between stuff and not really know, but it’s exciting that it’s there.”
Girls tennis: Lodi 6, St. Mary’s 3
The teams split the singles matches, with Lodi’s Johnna Schroeder beating Izzy Garcia 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 at No. 1, CeCe Chinchiolo beating Ava Fields 6-3, 6-4 at No. 3 and Hannah Larson beating Lauren Carter 6-4, 6-3 at No. 4.
But the Flames swept the doubles matches — Ally Clayworth and Victoria Eaton beat Virginia Bensch and Sara Marchetti 6-2, 6-3 at No. 1, Kylie Graves and Macy Munson beat Brooklyn Bo and Cecelia Madany 6-3, 7-5 at No. 2, and Bella Chiarchianis and Claire Selling beat Alyssa Franco and McKayla Hasin 6-1, 6-0 at No. 3.
Boys golf: Lodi 207, St. Mary’s 208
The Flames slipped past the Rams on Tuesday, with Jake Aberle carding a 39, Demenic Demski a 41, Fitz Wells and Cedar Burns a 42 each, and A.J. Saldetti a 43. With Wednesday’s match against West forfeited to Lodi for a lack of players, the Flames are 3-0 overall and 2-0 in TCAL play.