When you think of fall sports you think of a cool fall breeze, the leaves on the trees changing, and Friday night football. So when you would think of fall sports you would picture them in the fall, but not this year. Fall 2 sports are taking place now until right before April vacation, April 18. Of course in this crazy year this does not surprise anyone.

The sports happening right now are Volleyball, Football, girls and boys Indoor Track, Cheerleading, and girls Swimming. All teams have shortened game schedules, but spectators for all teams have been increased to two per player. For seniors, this is meaningful because their parents can watch them play one last time. However, there are still modifications that are affecting how these athletes can play.

Volleyball, again, is usually played in the fall or even the summer, so for the athletes to be playing with snow on the ground is a huge change for them.

“It changed a lot since the season moved completely, usually I’m used to playing in the summer and in the beginning of the school year,” Caroline Curtin, BHS volleyball senior captain, said.

With precautions put into place like being in cohorts during practice, only being able to do a drill for nine minutes at a time, and having to sanitize after each drill, it is hard to have efficient practices along with following all the guidelines.

“Practices have been going great, even though we have limited time per drill everything is very high energy and efficient,” Senior Ryan McGillivray, three-3 year member of the Varsity football team said.

For the BHS athletes, they are prepared play. To them, it does not matter when their sports happen; they just want to play.

By Marina Callahan; Photo by Sabri Tuzcu on Unsplash

Frosty air, the end of the holiday season, everyone knows what this means: winter sports. What could be better than watching basketball, hockey, and gymnastics? Well, usually people would be enjoying other sports such as wrestling, indoor track, and swimming. However, these sports, which are normally played now, have either gotten pushed to the “Fall 2” season or cancelled entirely.

Middlesex league teams are about three weeks into the season, and numerous teams have gotten shutdown. Most people would think this would be due to a rise in cases through the spread in sports, but this has not been the case for most. Superintendents have sent some school systems to be fully remote for school. This would lead to sports not being allowed to compete.

Reading and Wilmington are two examples of this. Wilmington schools have been switching between hybrid and remote learning almost weekly, and Reading has been remote the entire year. Both of these towns have held rallies to get sports to return, while continuing to be in the remote learning phase.

“I did not attend the rally, but I do think it was very successful because it informed many people of what was going on,” said Jackie Malley, a junior captain of the Reading varsity girls basketball team.

She also mentioned that she was very proud that her community stands behind her team, and all high school athletics.

The purpose of the rallies has been to gain the attention of each desired superintendent of each town. The Reading rally had about 150 people in attendance to advocate for the athletes, as well as the athletes themselves

The sports that are happening this fall are girls basketball, boys basketball, girls hockey, boys hockey, girls gymnastics, and boys gymnastics. All schools in the Middlesex League are participating in sports, as of right now. The schools consist of Arlington, Belmont, Burlington, Lexington, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield, Watertown, Wilmington, Winchester, and Woburn.

This season is going to consist of 10 games, no playoffs, and new modifications. However, the 10 games are not even all one hundred percent guaranteed. If any team gets shut down due to COVID cases, depending on the situation, they could be quarantined for two weeks, unless the players and coaches stay home if they have symptoms or are considered close contacts.

“After getting shut down I was definitely worried the games would not get rescheduled” said senior captain Kylie DuCharme of the Wilmington girls varsity basketball team.

So far if a game has been cancelled, due to a shutdown, they have been rescheduled to be played at a later point in the season. This has given athletes hope to get in a full schedule of the 10 games that they were told about in the beginning of the season.

The down side to the timing of the make-up games , is that teams are not having a lot of time to prepare inbetween games.

“Only having a few days to prepare for the games, and then only having one or two days in between games isn’t a lot of time to get a game plan in compared to other years” said DuCharme.

Though this year is hard, and has been a huge struggle for all teams around the nation, everyone seems to be figuring out how they can accomplish a successful season.

A month into our world, what was once a thriving and robust athletic community has been diminished to a mere remnant of its former self. This has not stopped our administration, fall coaches, and captains to continue to make sure that student athletes have something to hold onto this year.

This season girls and boys cross country, girls and boys soccer, field hockey, and golf have gotten the opportunity to start their seasons, with some major restrictions that have been put into place.

“The biggest challenge so far has been preparing for games,” senior Sean Theurer, two-time captain of the boys soccer team, said.

The new guidelines state that the team can only practice three times a week, which is a major decrease in preparation time than a normal season where teams would be practicing five to six days a week.

Sean also stated that wearing the masks has been another major adjustment.

“After awhile playing, and during conditioning drills when we’re all out of breath it's hard to breathe sometimes,” he said.

To help with the adjustment to the mask wearing, mask breaks have been put into place, along with a rule that if you are 10+ yards away from someone you can take your mask down to take a few breaths.

This unordinary season has not just been an adjustment for the student athletes, but also for all coaches. Coach Jackling, head coach of the boys varsity soccer team, has had to make game plans, practices, and prepare his team around the new regulations and guidelines so that his team is ready for their games every week.

“We’ve always had to grind games out. It’s been a learning curve for me. Guys fall back on what they know and we need to change that,” Coach Jacking said.

With seniors hopes being high since their freshman years of what their final seasons of their high school careers would look like, it is definitely a big upset.

“Seniors have been great. They got a perspective from last spring, at least we get to play one, keeping that in mind and valuing that,” he said.

With all of this controversy and change, the boys soccer team got their first victory 1-0 against Stoneham on Monday, October 12.

The athletic director had come up with multiple plans before school started so that sports would be able to take place. One of them was selected which consists of four total seasons: Fall 1, Winter, Fall 2, and Spring. This plan allows all student athletes who have been looking forward to their seasons to hopefully get the chance to play.

Fall sports have been running smoothly, with no reported cases so far, will this translate into the winter season?

“Winter has the same chance that fall has. Athletes make the difference between if we play or if we don’t. People are watching what they do,” athletic director Shaun Hart said.

Referees are being especially strict with enforcing the new rules. It is so important for the athletes to take this seriously because what they do in their own seasons affect what will happen during the upcoming ones.