Interscholastic Sports
By: Anna Kim, Reilly Piersimoni, Athena Wang
Exeter marked its return to interscholastic sports and this spring, both at home and away. While Academy athletes are following masking measures, wearing masks is not enforced amongst all opponents. Girls’ varsity lacrosse coach Christina Breen said, “We are wearing masks, though this is not the policy for most of our opponents, so we are being extra careful.”
The Exeter Athletics Department has been planning a safe transition into interscholastic competition for the past few terms. Athletic Director Jason Baseden said, “The planning process began with getting support for competition from the PEA medical team and administration. We needed to put some protocols in place and make sure that our competitive schools were following a similar plan of action to minimize the risk of COVID-19 spread.”
Baseden added, “We have had to limit numbers on buses, make sure masks are on and [students] social distance when stationary. We have eliminated the use of locker rooms so teams will need to arrive dressed. Porta potties will be reserved for visiting schools to keep separation between communities. We are also testing our referees when competing at home.” In addition, competing schools are required to test for COVID-19 at least once a week and cannot have any positive cases on their teams.
Similarly, Boys Crew coach Albert Leger detailed specific changes to enforce safety. “For the crew program, we will abide by our host school protocols. We will have our own doc, changing place, and port-a-potty. So it's going to be quite safe… we can only race against schools that test at least once a week.”
After almost two years without competition due to COVID precautions, coaches noted the anticipation of interscholastic competition. Leger said, “It's a lot of training, so it really makes it fun and exciting to think that we're going to be lining up against another school.”
Breen also encouraged people to attend games. “We have been waiting for 2 years to play. We are supported by a small crowd of students who are friends with the players on our team. We wish more people would come out and support us!”
Varsity lacrosse member and senior Tessa Shields noted how there was not much change leading up to competition. “When we came back in February, we had tryouts really early and we started practicing really early. But… nobody knew about the spring season yet and they were just trying to figure everything out. So it wasn't certain that we would have games or play anyone… but it didn't really affect our team. Like we still stayed very competitive and very hopeful and very optimistic about what we were going to be able to do. And now we're playing games, so it's even more fun,” Shields said.
As the first competitions of the season begin, students look forward to competing again. Boys’ crew team member and lower Weiyi Huang said, “To put it bluntly, although we love to train, competitions are what keeps us motivated and are part of the reason why we row. Unfortunately, our end-of-season competition (NEIRAs) got cancelled, but we do have some scrimmages with St. Paul’s and especially Andover. We’re looking forward to flying down the river and (hopefully) leaving them in our wake.”
Track member and upper Kaitlyn Flowers agreed. “I think that as a distance athlete, any athlete on the team is excited to have people from other schools as someone to compete against, because it pushes you to try harder. Competition is the driving force, definitely in races, and that’s something that’s hard to replicate amongst your teammates, versus time trial or maybe an inter-squad meet.”
Postgraduate crew team member Quentin Bazar enjoyed the bonding experience of attending competitions together. “To me [competition] means I can spend a weekend going away to an away game or an away race with my team. And with that comes the socializing of unpacking the boats, sending them, putting them in the trailers, taking the bus over, spending the day there, racing and the camaraderie that comes with that packing up and coming home and having that shared experience and actually doing something which I think is something we've been lacking pretty harshly in.”
Our athletes have been faced with new and ever-changing challenges in order to compete in a season shrouded in a pandemic. Prep Annika Finelli said, “I’d say one of the most challenging aspects that the pandemic has brought upon us, is the need to wear masks during practice and games. Lacrosse is a very active sport that requires a lot of sprinting, and the masks make it hard to breathe, providing another obstacle that we have had to adapt to.”
Cycling team member and upper Sophie Fernandez explained the cycling team’s protocols. “Cycling isn't a very close contact sport, so we are able to have normal practices. We wear masks and maintain distance when we are in the cycling room and then when we are on the road we do the same,” Fernandez said.
Cycling team captain and upper Owen Loustau agreed. “[It] is a pretty individual sport, and it isn’t very difficult to adhere to COVID guidelines when we’re training as a team. Everyone on the team is incredibly grateful that cycling is their sport during the pandemic,” Loustau said.
Finelli added, “It has also been hard to find teams to play, because everyone is eager to get back out there, however, we are only allowed to play teams who undergo similar amounts of COVID testing as we do.”
Despite all of these challenges, Baseden said, “I am looking forward to our students being able to compete and have fun with their classmates. It has also been great to see some students out at games supporting the teams,” he explained. “We in Athletics are so proud of [our student athletes] and their collective effort to support each other through these challenging times. We want to do our best to provide a great experience for them this spring.”