Athletes Continue Despite COVID Concerns
Pioneer sports have been able to field typical team numbers and keep up student participation.
By Katherine Rowe
Pioneer sports have been able to field typical team numbers and keep up student participation.
By Katherine Rowe
With sports finally returning after Governor Gavin Newsom allowed them to begin in late February, concerns about athlete participation arose with the safety concerns of others.
While cross country struggled with gaining enough players for a girl’s team at first, others managed to have usual levels of participants as Pioneer athletes were anxious to resume practicing.
Cross country runner Maya Miller, 12, feels that the sport is generally less-appealing among female athletes, but is grateful that they were able to form a varsity team and also practice safely by checking in before practices.
“We usually have a pretty good turn out for girls, but normally there are more boys who join,” Miller said. “There are about five to seven, so we’ll have a varsity girls team this year.”
On the other hand, football is one of the most popular sports at Pioneer, with a magnetic atmosphere around it as cheer, dance, and band all participate during their games. Despite not being able to hold the same Friday night games as usual, the team has been able to keep an average number of players for this shortened season. Daniel Splane, 11, has found that his teammates feel comfortable practicing while also social distancing and disinfecting.
“COVID was actually the reason we had a coach opt out this year, but luckily we are finally able to be out there playing as long as we keep distance from each other the whole time,” Splane said. “We’ve all been eager to get out there on the field so nobody has really quit on the team.”
Another concern was that teams may not be able to find new players and freshmen to join due to the pandemic, but it seems that younger athletes are taking the opportunity to try different sports. Girl’s water polo was doing conditioning over Zoom earlier on in the year, and has managed to bring in a good amount of players according to varsity coach Steve Kurihara.
“Turnout this season has really exceeded my expectations – we have 25 players participating, including seven new players, and are able to field both varsity and JV teams,” Kurihara said. “Some schools in our division will only be fielding a varsity squad this year.”
While Pioneer teams have still been able to keep up good numbers for the delayed and shortened season, other schools have not been as lucky. Cross country coach Marc Klemencic has noticed that other schools have struggled more.
“We’re in the Santa Teresa division and some of the other schools are having difficulty fielding a full team, and our team is much smaller this year than it was last year, so some other schools are going to have challenges and they may not even want to host some of the meets if they can’t field a team,” Klemencic said.
Even though coronavirus has directly affected Pioneer athletics by postponing sports seasons and creating new safety guidelines, some of the larger effects the pandemic has may come more indirectly as other schools are hit harder.
While cross country struggled with gaining enough players for a girl’s team at first, others managed to have usual levels of participants as Pioneer athletes were anxious to resume practicing.
Cross country runner Maya Miller, 12, feels that the sport is generally less-appealing among female athletes, but is grateful that they were able to form a varsity team and also practice safely by checking in before practices.
“We usually have a pretty good turn out for girls, but normally there are more boys who join,” Miller said. “There are about five to seven, so we’ll have a varsity girls team this year.”
On the other hand, football is one of the most popular sports at Pioneer, with a magnetic atmosphere around it as cheer, dance, and band all participate during their games. Despite not being able to hold the same Friday night games as usual, the team has been able to keep an average number of players for this shortened season. Daniel Splane, 11, has found that his teammates feel comfortable practicing while also social distancing and disinfecting.
“COVID was actually the reason we had a coach opt out this year, but luckily we are finally able to be out there playing as long as we keep distance from each other the whole time,” Splane said. “We’ve all been eager to get out there on the field so nobody has really quit on the team.”
Another concern was that teams may not be able to find new players and freshmen to join due to the pandemic, but it seems that younger athletes are taking the opportunity to try different sports. Girl’s water polo was doing conditioning over Zoom earlier on in the year, and has managed to bring in a good amount of players according to varsity coach Steve Kurihara.
“Turnout this season has really exceeded my expectations – we have 25 players participating, including seven new players, and are able to field both varsity and JV teams,” Kurihara said. “Some schools in our division will only be fielding a varsity squad this year.”
While Pioneer teams have still been able to keep up good numbers for the delayed and shortened season, other schools have not been as lucky. Cross country coach Marc Klemencic has noticed that other schools have struggled more.
“We’re in the Santa Teresa division and some of the other schools are having difficulty fielding a full team, and our team is much smaller this year than it was last year, so some other schools are going to have challenges and they may not even want to host some of the meets if they can’t field a team,” Klemencic said.
Even though coronavirus has directly affected Pioneer athletics by postponing sports seasons and creating new safety guidelines, some of the larger effects the pandemic has may come more indirectly as other schools are hit harder.