Brooklyn Adams
Editor-in-Chief
“Let me just check my crystal ball real quick . . . just kidding,” SHS Athletic Director Garet Luebbert said about the unknowns of high school sports in the near future. The possibilities of change, cancellation, and preparation is endless with COVID-19.
“While I am optimistic about sports taking place, I am still uncertain how we will hold competitions and/or practices for some sports under the current COVID restrictions,” Lubbert said. While the plans are under constant change, what we do know according to OSAA is that Fall sports are currently scheduled to start Feb. 22, Spring sports April 5, and Winter sports will start May 10. The plan is for all seasons to be roughly the same time and about six weeks long.
“I am anticipating further guidance to come by early February that will shed some light on how we can proceed with certain situations or sports,” Luebbert said. That being said, SHS is planning to hold more pre-season workouts to prepare for the upcoming season.
“I’m hoping they let us play and our seasons, although short, will be eventful! I foresee a lot of sanitizing, re-scheduling, and random games. Also, masks, masks, masks,” softball head coach Kayla Grahn said.
“If we are able to have a season we fully understand that it will not look like any season that we have had before. We will have a limited schedule and know that we will need to be flexible as things are fluid and can change quickly for us,” football head coach Josh Dill said. With fall sports scheduled to start Feb. 22, it makes for a short time until games and events are scheduled to start.
“We are disinfecting equipment between groups and screening athletes for Covid prior to allowing them to participate. All in all there are still so many questions to be answered and the season is set to start in less than a month,” Dill said.
If sports will be able to continue this season is the main question, but what cost will be associated with such short seasons this year?
“Our district has not made decisions on much of this or many things relating to athletics at this point as academics and the ever-changing rules and restrictions are the biggest priority,” Luebbert said.
So as the crystal ball keeps spinning so does the preparation forward towards SHS athletic seasons.
The Pioneer Press 