Every student athlete is so eager to participate in games and represent their school. Playing a sport during COVID has been tough because there have been many games canceled. Additionally, students who have to sit out of practices and games due to people getting COVID have been unable to play. Certain sports require different precautions and different teams have had their own experiences during COVID. 

Caroline Amsbary, a senior who plays on the Varsity Golf team said, “I think that luckily for us, golf is already a pretty socially distanced sport especially because it’s outside and you play matches in groups of four. In terms of precautions, we have to fill out an athletic form at every practice which makes sure that no one is feeling any symptoms. She adds that “usually we would be able to use the golf carts, but due to COVID we are not allowed to anymore.”. It can be concluded that the Golf team is doing an outstanding job controlling the COVID situation. This is seen due to the fact that they have yet to have any problems or setbacks during their season while dealing with COVID. 

Paige Settar, a senior who plays on the Varsity Field Hockey team explained that “COVID has affected our field hockey season by changing our game schedule and not allowing us to have a full season. We had to wear masks all of last year and due to close contact tracing with people in the school, athletes on the team are missing practices and games which affects the whole team.”. Due to contact tracing, students who have been in close contact or even in the same class as an individual who has it have to be paused from in school learning. This pause extends to school sponsored sports. Paige said, “There have been times when people had to sit out due to contact tracing and it really hurts the team.”. On the field, though, the field hockey team is doing pretty well with a 7-2 record so far. Erica Strauss, a senior who is on the Varsity Cheer team said, “COVID has affected my cheer season, because we’re mandated to wear masks while we practice. We do not have to wear them while we perform, but we have to keep being cautious about COVID.”. Erica expresses her love for cheer by adding “we are so passionate about this sport and we all wear our masks at practice because we want to continue to cheer.”. The Cheer Team always adds lots of hype at the football games. They put in lots of time and dedication into their practices to perform in front of hundreds of people during games. That being said, taking proper precautions during practices is extremely important in order to participate in these events.

 Senior Varsity football player Ethan Bower said, “It has affected us in many ways. Firstly, we have to wear masks at all inside meetings and in the locker room. Also, we have to be careful of catching COVID. This year, some players got paused and that hurt us for a game and the Herndon game got moved because they caught COVID so we’ve had to play two games in a week.”. Going to the football games and watching friends play on Friday nights is always the highlight of most students’ week.

Interviewing these student athletes and listening to what they had to say about their different experiences playing sports during COVID was really enjoyable. One thing that everyone should take into consideration is, taking proper precautions, like wiping down equipment and resources that are used at school and practices is very important for not only students and staff, but also the wellbeing of our school.