CPA Sports

At CPA it’s pretty exciting to have sports back up and running, but it’s not like any other sports season. CPA in-season athletes will undergo mandatory COVID testing every two weeks. Currently, there are four sports in-season: girls’ and boys’ basketball, cheerleading, and eSports. That requirement has been put in place by the city of Saint Louis Health Department to ensure that COVID 19 does not spread. It is a PCR test that takes up to 24-48 hours for results. If an athlete tests positive the whole team has to quarantine according to city guidelines, which currently is 14 days. Some might disagree with the decision to carry on with the sports season instead of canceling or postponing. Ms. Prebianca, the school’s Athletic Director, responded to that concern and said, “It was not an easy decision and I am grateful that it was made collectively within the administration team. Each family that decides to participate has to determine if the amount of risk associated is one that is worth taking for their home. We have educated our community on the risks associated with the decision as well as the mitigation efforts that we are implementing to keep everyone as safe as possible. I will note that several families have opted out of athletics for this season.” Masks are required at practices and at games. Girls’ basketball Coach Womack said, “It is hard to coach because we can’t get up and personal with the athletes, no huddles, no high fives. And it is hard to talk and practice with masks. Boys’ varsity basketball Coach K says his season has been a bit more challenging, “With all that’s going on the COVID testing Is not the most enjoyable thing, but to get life back to at least a little bit of normal is worth it!” Coach Arnett is the coach for CPA’s new eSports team, ”COVID is not affecting practice or matches a whole lot. We are able to sit students at every other computer and our matches would have been virtual anyway. The real impact is that students need to be able to get themselves to the school for practice and matches, which either means getting up and taking the school bus to the VLC (Virtual Learning Center), riding the Metro bus, or getting a ride from a family member.” This epidemic has made life harder, but the more together we are, the stronger we can become.

Boys Basketball Season Preview

Check out our story on our Boys' Basketball team in our next Titans' Talk Newsletter edition.

In the meantime: Check out Coach K's Twitter feed @CoachK_CPA for links to watch live streamed games.

All CPA home games will be live streamed in this format this season. Please visit our team webpages for the most up to date schedules.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXguqW8Sd9u2aXEoM-zQz-A

Cheerleading Season Preview

Story by: Tysjae Duckworth

This year, with all the chaos of COVID, everything in our world has changed. One of the biggest things for students and educators is school. Since COVID hit last spring it’s been hard for students dealing with not being able to go back to school. But now with precautionary steps, sports are slowly making their way back. I talked to some of the cheerleaders and also to the coach to see how they are dealing with the obstacles this year. Cheerleading Coach Deidra Evans says, “The cheer season has been affected by not allowing us to do many of the things we would usually do this off season, such as attend camps, competitions, and learning new skills. We have had to cheer in masks 24/7 which makes our practices difficult due to misunderstandings of words and learning of techniques. We are ready for everything to go back to normal.” Athletic director Angela Prebianca says, “I always have to keep the safety of our community at the center of my brain when I am working through decisions that will impact our school. I will say that I am lucky to have a whole team of awesome administrators that help me make these tough decisions.” Cheerleading squad member Armoni Blue shared how it was being on the team during a pandemic, “It’s actually not as bad as I thought it would be, I just hate that we get tested every two weeks.” The team practices every Wednesday and Thursday from 4:00 until 5:30.