Practicing in a Pandemic
October 18, 2020
Even though the games for the fall semester have been canceled, fall sports teams are still hard at work. Instead of the usual fall, winter, and spring seasons, this year sports will be divided into two seasons, fall and spring. The fall season will consist of football, cheer, song, water polo, volleyball, and cross country, as tennis and golf have been pushed back to the spring season. Fall sports are currently slated to start Jan. of 2021.
Our fall sports teams began practices towards the end of the summer, however, they looked a bit different than usual. All sorts have been practicing in phase one, which allows for social distancing between players, and no shared equipment. These precautions allowed for conditioning.
On Monday, Sept. 28, teams were allowed to begin phase two. Phase two allowed them to begin to use the equipment, that is properly sanitized, and the option of practicing indoors with masks.
Football practice and it looked much different this season. The program has been in Phase one of conditions for four weeks, and have now begun stage two, which allows them to begin to use equipment such as the weight room, and footballs. Currently, 50 athletes are allowed on the field, out of the programs 150.
Their first game will be held on Jan.8, 2021, against division eight semifinalists San Gorgiono. “We have a lot of talent coming back from a successful 2019 season,” says Coach Callahan. With 25 returning seniors, Evan Comiskey, Trevor Romaldo, Quentin Biebel, and Sky Ellis are the ones to watch this season, as well as juniors Chase Christner, Kurt Chesney, Charlie Jarvis, and newcomer Michael Laderer. Sophomores, Vance Marini, Chad DeSilva, CJ Besuzzi, and Jacob Akaven are also expected to have a big impact on the success of this season. “The freshmen are slated to have a big season” as well says Coach Callahan due to freshman newcomers Lucas Short, Luke Jones, Josh Martine, Kuwait’s Ewert, Hunter Najim, Dylan Kissen, and Malachi McClanahan.
The coaching staff will also be seeing some changes, with the addition of Cole Thomas, and Remy Wasserbach, both former Wolverines from the class of 2015. Even though they have faced some setbacks, Coach Callahan is “excited for this upcoming season and believes that it will be a very successful one.”
Water polo has also returned to Aliso and began practices on Sept. 8. In phase one they focused on conditions workouts, as they could not yet use equipment. This week, in phase two, they have begun using balls to improve individual skills and ball-handling drills.
They can not yet pass to other players, however, they are able to increase their group sizes of participants during practice while remaining socially distant. Even though practices are much different than last year, “All in all, it’s been awesome just to get the kids back on campus and together” says Coach Puffer. Their season will begin next semester in the fall season of sports along with volleyball, cheer, football, and cross country.
Athletes participating in fall sports co time to work incredibly hard for their accomplice season, despite the setbacks they have faced. They have persevered throughout the trials and tribulations of COVID-19, and strive to have a great season next semester.
