Athletes Take First Small Steps Back On The Fields In MA

ATTLEBORO, MA — One could have been forgiven for thinking for a second or two that the sight was a mirage from a foregone era.

A small group of Bishop Feehan girls volleyball players were together on the school's Attleboro campus Wednesday morning for a conditioning workout. It was perhaps the tiniest first step forward in the long road back for high school athletics after the spring season was crushed amid the coronavirus health crisis. But it was a positive step forward that the players could take with each other after three months of being told they had to stay apart.

"It's some of the most exciting news we've had so far," Bishop Feehan athletic director Christian Schatz said of the socially distanced conditioning work. "The girls really seemed to like it. As I said to the coaches: 'Yeah, it's about conditioning. But it's also about being together on the Bishop Feehan campus.

"You could see a lot of smiling faces out there. Then they put their masks back on. But, before that, you could see a lot of them smiling."

Great morning on Holcott Drive! Started off our small group, socially distanced workouts with @bfhsvolleyball! Great work ladies! pic.twitter.com/gWWNV11SxL
— Bishop Feehan Athletics (@FeehanAthletics) June 17, 2020

The high school athletics season in Massachusetts came to a screeching halt when the winter sports championships were canceled due to growing coronavirus fears on March 12. The spring season, which was to begin on March 16, was postponed for two weeks at first, then another three weeks in April, then another month in May, and eventually scrapped when Gov. Charlie Baker announced that in-person classes had been canceled across the state through the end of the school year.

But with the state moving into phase two of reopening on June 8, some towns began allowing youth sports and organized teams to reunite for very limited skills and conditioning work.

Schatz said this week's workouts at Bishop Feehan require athletes to wear masks onto and off the field, spread out in groups of no more than 10, at least 20 feet apart from each other, and not engage in any physical contact or scrimmage activity.

Yet, while it was a long way from doing what the Feehan volleyball players did on Wednesday to taking the court against one of the school's new Catholic Central League rivals inside a gymnasium this fall, these types of workouts are a start for athletes who were deprived of a lot more than merely statistics this spring.

"The hardest thing about this has not been missing the wins and losses," Schatz said, "it's been missing out on that team interaction you had as an athlete because it all happened so quickly."

In Easton, Oliver Ames athletic director Bill Matthews is still waiting to open the gates for his athletes to return even on that very limited basis. He said the town has yet to give that school the OK for practices as it sorts through the ramifications of the new guidelines.

"A lot of school districts are trying to determine what their level of responsibility is as a facility," he said. "We're still waiting on that. Hopefully, we will be able to move forward because, from my perspective, I would love to see my student-athletes have this ongoing opportunity."

Easton Public Schools outdoor fields are open for INDIVIDUALS for rec use provided they follow the DPH guidelines. Fields are currently closed to youth, high school or adult orgs for organized workouts, practice, drills, games or clinics. Indoor facilities are closed.
— Bill Matthews (@OAHSTigersports) June 12, 2020

The challenges of reconciling athletics with social distancing are considerable. As schools grapple with what transportation, classrooms and student-teacher relationships might look like this fall with potential staggered schedules, desks spaced apart, bus seats left empty and people wearing masks in school, the athletic community must determine the feasibility of playing tackle football, soccer or field hockey between towns, or volleyball on an indoor court.

"It's an interesting challenge and very frustrating in a way," Matthews said. "We have a group of very experienced guys and women who have been meeting, and have come up with a lot of creative ideas of what things might look like. But right now it's all just spit balling. Trying to predict what it's going to look like in the fall is like playing pin the tail on the donkey because you just don't know."

Still, after a spring where coaches and athletic directors tried to use digital meetings and social media to keep athletes engaged and inspired, any time spent working collectively toward a return to competition is embraced.

"You can take the sports away from the athlete but you can't take the athlete out of the person," Schatz said. "Whether they are home working out on their own, or in the backyard with their neighbors and friends, they are always athletes. The feeling (Wednesday) morning made them feel that much more like they were doing the stuff they feel normal doing."

First socially distanced @FeehanFootball workout! (Groups of 10, 20yrds apart) LETS GOOOO! Very excited to have these small groups of kids back on campus! pic.twitter.com/hKwnVKGtP1
— Bishop Feehan Athletics (@FeehanAthletics) June 17, 2020

As was the case in the spring, when many coaches and athletic directors held out a potential shortened spring season as a way to keep athletes motivated to stay in shape and keep up with school work, Matthews said the idea for fall athletes is to be as ready as possible for when they are given the go ahead to return to more traditional practices and games.

"I remember we used to have a class motto that said: 'To fail to prepare is to prepare to fail,'" he said, referring to a quote from Benjamin Franklin. "We have to prepare all the kids to be ready for the future when there will be a return to competition, even if we don't know where and when that will be."