For high school athletes, the beginning of August signaled the return of the long anticipated fall sport season. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has delayed the official start of these beloved events. For men’s soccer, which is traditionally a fall sport, this is no different.

“There was no training throughout the summer,” men’s soccer coach Tony Sabio said. “We started training once WSFCS allowed us to and while we haven’t been training every week, we are trying to get out there while we can.”

Moving the season back does not come without consequences however, for both athletes and coaches. With first practices scheduled to start in January for the soccer team, some major differences could affect the sport, especially the temperature difference. 

“The main difference to the season will be the heat vs the cold,” Sabio said. “We’re going to embrace and go with it. We’ve had success in cold conditions and I’m encouraged by that.”

The cold is not the only issue coaches and players are facing in lue of their return to the field. Many restrictions have been placed on the teams in order for them to train.

“There has been no equipment at practices,” sophomore Walt Peterson said. “Conditioning practices have been socially distanced the whole time so it feels safe.”

Safety of all involved is one of the key issues for not just returning to sports but to school and regular life as well. 

“Our first priority is safety for the players, for their families at home and for me personally,” Sabio said. “We want to take the right steps to protect everyone involved.”

No equipment in practice limits training to just conditioning, meaning no balls, cones or pennies for soccer players, but also no pads, weights or footballs for the football team. 

“We have been doing training throughout quarantine and started going back to practice in the summer,” junior football player Zane Farmer said. “We have not gotten to put on pads yet, or lift weights, so a lot of our conditioning has been individual in order to stay in shape.”

The Coronavirus has put a strain on many aspects of daily life and sports are not excluded from that sentiment. There will be an adjustment period for all sports and even scheduled dates are clouded with uncertainty. 

“All we can do is control the things that we can,” Sabio said. “We can control how we get better regardless of what goes on around us.”

The wait is on for high school sports to return and until then the teams will be training hard in order to stay in shape and prepare for January.