PLAYING IT SAFE L.V. high schoolers ease into uncommon practices amid questions about fall season
For the Allen High School boys soccer team, the practice process starts before they enter the stadium. The athletes line up, each wearing masks and prepared for temperature checks. When they get inside, situated six feet apart, they can remove the face coverings.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, practices started differently, said rising senior midfielder Arnaldo Rizo. They’d head in, stretch on their own, push each other around to loosen the tension and share a laugh. But amid serious COVID-19 precautions and social distancing requirements, can a training session full of restrictions and limitations still be effective?
“Even then, we still joke around,” Rizo said. “It’s different, yet we find a way to manage around it.”
After weeks of Zoom workouts and backyard exercises, varsity athletes are back with their teammates on fields and courts — serving, dribbling, kicking, scrimmaging — all while maintaining social distance.
Following Gov. Tom Wolf’s announcement permitting a return to summer voluntary workouts, Lehigh Valley athletes and coaches have been reuniting and navigating extra safety precautions at the same time.
They’re preparing for a season that the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association said is set to happen, but a resurgence of the coronavirus could still threaten. Still, coaches and players are optimistic, pinning down ways to proceed with safe practices, all while keeping their eyes on the future.
On Thursday, the Allentown school board unanimously approved the district’s plan for virtual learning. Allentown, the region’s largest district, is the only Lehigh Valley district so far to say it will reopen schools virtually.
Shelby Hoppis, the lead athletic trainer at St. Luke’s was charged with leading a team to design a safe return to
sports, based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Health and Wolf ’s recommendations.
Hoppis said that St. Luke’s provided partners with a 23-page document with guidance to help schools design a plan for a safe return to sports — documentation required by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. But last week, Hoppis indicated she was still waiting on guidance from the Wolf administration about what the fall could like.
“We’re hoping for that guidance,” she said. “We’re hoping any day.”
While the process at the start of training is new for the Allen soccer team, coach Jarrad Max said that much of the session’s structure remains the same: warmups, drills and gameplay, Max explained. And he’s leveraging the opportunities that come with the added distance requirement, he said.
Rather than working to steal the ball, Max has been focusing on how his team can set up to force their opponent into making poor decisions.
“For soccer particularly, spacing is so important,” he said. “I’m using this to my advantage.”
The Liberty High School tennis team, coached by Chris Conrad, has also made its way back to the court. Players are showing up with personally labeled balls and sticking to positions on red lines to keep their distance.
Returning to the court brought “some level of normalcy” to players,
Conrad said, even though the practices aren’t normal. And adhering to COVID-19 guidelines while playing tennis comes with its own challenges, he added.
In a sport like football or soccer, Conrad said, there’s potential to clean the balls after use. But, with 250 balls in his basket, sanitizing every single tennis ball is not as feasible. That’s why he’s having the players bring in their own labeled balls.
Veronica Lynn, a rising sophomore and No. 1 player on the team said that players keep their bags six feet apart on the court. They’re also not playing doubles matches, she added.
But even though tennis is a fairly spaced-out sport, Lynn said it’s still difficult to break some not-so-distant habits, like high-fiving your partner or handing balls to a teammate.
“It’s just hard not to communicate with your teammates the way we used to before,” she said.
At Parkland High School, the girls volleyball team is easing into their phased return to practice, said Coach Mike Krause.
In the first phase, players were divided into “pods” and were unable to use any equipment, he said. And in phase two, players were able to handle balls individually. As they head into phase three, they’re able to “incorporate and integrate teammates,” he said.
Jackie Malitzki, a rising senior, said that she anticipated a lot of adapting, but they’re making it work. It’s been a lot of conditioning and workouts. And at the end of the day, it’s an opportunity to play a sport that she loves, she added.
And although increasing coronavirus cases could knock out the fall season, Krause is keeping his head up.
“We are a positive outlook people,” he said. “We’re not even allowing any negative thoughts in the gym and that holds people back.”
For Andrew Uhler, who coaches girls soccer at Liberty, the threat of a halted season looms in the back of his mind, especially as some college leagues canceled their seasons. But for now, all he can do is coach, he said.
But while some varsity seasons may be in doubt, Emmaus field hockey coach, Sue Butz-Stavin, is confident about the return to her sport. Everyone has their own stick, she said, and the ball doesn’t need to be touched except for when the umpire starts the game.
The team isn’t scrimmaging yet, but Bailey Tietz, a rising senior , says playing while keeping a distance is going to be difficult, even if field hockey isn’t necessarily a high-contact sport. And even though it was good to be back with teammates — who rising senior Annika Herbine says double as “best friends” — the possibility of a canceled season surrounds. But they’re keeping their heads up.
“There’s so many traditions with field hockey … senior year is kind of when everything comes together,” Tietz said. “We have a pretty good shot at making it all the way and we’re really excited for that.”
Morning Call reporter Rina Torchinsky can be reached at 240-630-4252 or at rtorchinsky@mcall.com.