Jared participated in Cross Country this year, although he didn't have much of a season. They pushed the start of the season from August to November, and then had 3 practices a week. That's all they did. They ran with a small group 3 times a week for a couple of months and then announced their season was over. No races. Then late February, after the season had been over for at least a month, they announced they would be able to have 2 races (in just over a week's time). Some of his teammates had already gone to another sport, so they weren't allowed to participate in the race because they're only allowed to do one sport at a time during Covid. Most of them had stopped training. Jared had continued running a little bit in the mornings. He and four of his teammates ran the race against ONE other team from a local school. He ran 3 miles in 21:50 (about 7:17/mile pace). He did a great job, considering they hadn't been training anymore.
They cancelled the second race, because they only had 4 guys that could run (Jared couldn't make it). So he got one race this year. It was very frustrating, considering that the risks for Covid were very minimal, with running being outside and an individual sport. They almost didn't let us watch the race either. Earlier in the week, they sent out an e-mail saying no spectators. The day of the race, we got an email giving us the okay to watch, as long as we were wearing a mask. When Alex and I got there, one of the other coaches tried to tell us that we weren't allowed. He let us stay, but they wouldn't allow anyone at the start or finish. We had to watch the finish through a fence, from a little distance away. Even the runners who came in were shewed out of the area when they finished and couldn't stand there and cheer their teammates on. We were OUTSIDE, far apart from anyone! It's SO frustrating.
Alex and I yelled loud enough for Jared to hear though. They weren't going to keep us from cheering. We also weren't going to heed the "no spectators" rule. They would have had to drag me out of there if they'd said I couldn't watch my son's first cross country race.
Nathan hasn't had a basketball season yet. They were able to start "practicing" in February, which means they had a couple weeks of just conditioning. The third week, they were able to bring their own basketball and dribble and shoot around. They couldn't scrimmage or pass or have any kind of contact. They're supposed to be able to play after spring break, if they get tested weekly. We'll see...
One of the options thrown out to us was for them to not play the High School season and have them join a club team that would fly to different states for games... hmmm... that sounds like a horrible option, considering it goes against the requirements to attend in-person school, not to mention affording to fly to games in other states. What are they thinking here??
At this point, we're hoping he gets to play in a few games against the other local schools. Maybe they'll even let the parents watch.......
It's frustrating to hear about other states doing high contact sports like football and wrestling since the beginning of the school year. Here they won't even allow tennis, golf, or cross country races.
No comments:
Post a Comment