Fall sports a roadmap to winter and spring success
by Grace Ericson
November 24, 2020
November 24, 2020
This fall, student athletes faced a new and difficult foe: Covid-19. Planning and the development of protocols by Yarmouth Athletics helped as many students as possible to be able to play their sports of choice, and the success of the fall season should prove that Yarmouth is able to safely play winter and spring sports.
Sadly, football and volleyball were not allowed this fall—football because of close contact and volleyball due to indoor play. The sports that were allowed had significantly fewer games and meets. But even though so much was different, most students, many who couldn’t play sports at all last spring when we were in lockdown, have been happy just to get the chance to play. “I’m happier and perform better in school when I’m playing a sport,” said cross-country runner Nina Ryan of Morse High School in a Sept. 13 article in the Brunswick Times Record.
Athletes had to take more precautions, practicing social distancing and making sure to wear masks on the sidelines and in warmups. Games would pause for sanitation breaks. I was on the cross country team, and our coaches emphasized that we had to show up every day with a mask and always have it on when not running.
Student athletes also had to complete a health screen every day to make sure no one was showing any symptoms of Covid-19. The checklist included cough, fever, sore throat, shortness of breath, close contact with a person who was Covid-19 positive in the last 14 days, fatigue, chills, muscle or body aches, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting, headache, congestion or runny nose, new loss of taste or smell. It also asked if within the past 24 hours we had experienced a fever of 100.4 F and if we had traveled outside of Maine in the past 14 days.
If we forgot a mask, or hadn’t filled out the health screen, we were told to leave. We practiced social distancing and we continued to social distance even while we were running. Along with this, our coaches asked us to bring our masks on our runs, and put them on if we passed someone walking on the street.
Our team still got a lot of complaints, especially if we were running around Main Street, from people concerned about us running too closely together or in too big of a group. Our coaches were flexible with coming up with ways to respond to concerns as they arose. In this case, we had to begin wearing masks whenever we ran on Main Street. Following more complaints, our coaches had us reroute our runs to avoid Main Street.
“Unfortunately, we have gotten more complaints from the center of town,” said cross country coach Dylan Thombs to the team, “so now on runs we’re going to have to ask you to stay on the Middle School and Greely Road side of town from now on. This is difficult for us as coaches too.” These were challenges, but at least we got to practice! Because of this, Yarmouth sports teams were willing to adapt to meet challenges as they arose.
I believe winter and spring sports should be allowed to proceed, even as Covid-19 is still out there, because of the overall success of the fall season. The Athletic Department developed rules, coaches had players follow them and changed them up as needed, and the athletes compiled because they wanted to play (and keep other people, themselves and their families and friends, safe).
Schools in other districts were not as lucky. Some, like Sanford, didn’t start to play until weeks after Yarmouth was allowed to because their communities had more Covid-19 cases. Sanford athletes even contributed to a video that went viral asking community members to please wear masks and practice social distancing. Fewer Covid-19 cases, the athletes hoped, would mean they could play again.
Last spring I lost my lacrosse season and was very upset about it. But although we didn’t get any playing time on the field our coaches did a wonderful job with coming up with fun things to do and we would have Zoom meetings and virtual workouts everyday Wednesday. It was super fun. Coach Dorothy would also give us activities every afternoon after school to post on an app called sportsyou. This was when other schools weren’t doing anything, so I was really grateful we have such awesome coaches who put in the time and effort to have as much of a season as we could!
Still, I want to play. We all want to play. Fall was different, but it was successful. I believe we can take that success into winter and spring sports seasons.