A Whole New Ballgame As School Athletics Return To North Shore

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Swampscott High athletic practices were a washout on Monday.

Wait a second. It hardly rained on the North Shore at all Monday. There was no thunder. No lightning. It certainly didn't rain enough to cancel practice for a sport like soccer that when played on a turf field will typically go on during a drenching downpour or even a snow squall at the end of a fall season.

Only, there is nothing typical about this fall playing soccer — or any of the other low- to moderate-contact sports — in Swampscott, the North Shore or anywhere else in the state amid the coronavirus health crisis.

"Today, everyone was bummed out because it started to rain," Swampscott Athletic Director Kelly Farley told Patch Monday afternoon. "So, because the masks get wet it's a no go. Even with the slightest sprinkle, it doesn't matter because if they get wet you can't practice or play."

The worry of a wet face mask is only one of hundreds of rule modifications and precautions that will make this fall season look and feel foreign to anyone who has played or coached field hockey, soccer or even participated in competitive cross country running and golf.

"It's been difficult," Farley allowed. "It's just a lot of new things to do. A lot of extra steps. A lot of extra money. It's worth it to get the kids out there. But it's definitely been difficult.

"It's crazy with the game modifications. The kids are changing every way they were taught to play."

As a competitive soccer player herself, Farley admits she sometimes doesn't know how the athletes will adjust to modifications in that sport that include the elimination of headers, the elimination of throw-ins, the elimination of the wall in front of the goalie on a direct kick and the inability of the goalie to challenge a defender on a shot.

"If even it's coming to your head you can't head it," she said. "You have to let the other team score. … You can't make a wall. So you tell your goalie: 'Good luck with that.'"

Farley said she is happy her student-athletes are getting their wish to play this fall, but admits she wonders whether they might have been better off under a Northeastern Conference plan late this summer to practice with their coaches and teammates throughout the fall, but move the actual season to a potential "Fall 2" season starting in Feb. 22.

Northeastern Conference superintendents voted to move all sports to the "wedge season" last month, but eight of them — including Beverly, Danvers, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott — relented earlier this month and allowed practices that started two weeks ago, with the first league golf matches scheduled for Tuesday and rest of the sports allowed to follow over the next two weeks.

"Everybody was so adamant about getting out in the field this fall," Farley said. "Parents were going crazy. For what? It’s not the same game."

Yet, it's something that many of the athletes were deprived of in March when their spring sports were canceled due to the pending health crisis, something there is no guarantee they will be allowed to do this winter when sports move indoors, and something that is hardly assured in February when there is theoretically a chance for football, volleyball, competitive cheer to take place in the wedge season.

"I'm happy for the student-athletes," Danvers Athletic Director Andrew St. Pierre told Patch last week. "They clearly wanted to play and communicated that sentiment to the leaders within the school community in a thoughtful and respectful manner.

"Although the game day experience and the season itself will look very differently this fall for teams and fans, it will be great for the student-athletes to regain that connection to coaches and teammates that has been lacking for some time during this pandemic."

Northeastern Conference soccer and field hockey teams will each only play each other and will play two games a week. Cross country meets will be held Saturdays. Golf will be allowed as scheduled at area courses.

Other rules modifications include playing 7-v-7 with no penalty corners in field hockey, and the elimination of pack running in cross country.

Fans will be capped at 50 per game. There will be no visiting fans allowed. Temperatures will be taken for admittance.

Scores will be kept, there will be winners and losers, but there will be no postseason, no recognized conference champions and no conference all-stars.

"At this point it's pretty new and it's pretty fresh so everyone is working hard and ready to go," Farley said. 'I don't know how it will go as the season goes."

And looming in less than two months is yet another dilemma of what to do with winter sports like basketball, hockey and wrestling — which are high-contact sports played exclusively indoors.

"We're already trying to figure out if they get the go ahead to do that how would we make that work," Farley said. "We're trying to imagine what basketball might look like. Do you not play man-to-man defense? Are you not allowed to box out?

"I wanted to do anything I could to get them to play this year," she concluded of the unpredictability of the virus implications. "It's fluid. You are just going to have to see what happens."

Related Patch Coverage: Games Appear Set To Go On After All For North Shore Fall Athletes

MA Fall Sports To Look Much Different Under Rules Modifications