Sports are resuming in-person practices during September under strict guidelines released by the Centers of Disease Control in July in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. 

“Currently our team is assigned to participate in any physical activity available to us for at least 5 hours weekly. We then log the activity we did and the time it took to complete it into a team spreadsheet for our coaches to see,” volleyball player and junior Semiramis Tanasescu said. “We want to improve our overall gameplay on the court so that we can make CIF if we do get to compete this year.”

Volleyball head coach Heidi Martasian wants to make sure the athletes are physically ready for when her sport is able to return to the court.

The ability to practice again excites spring sports, which were forced to cancel their seasons due to the shutdown in mid-March. Boys’ tennis has begun practice alongside girls’ tennis, in preparation for a joint spring season in 2021.

“Tennis is very easy to maintain social distancing on the courts because you’re not on the same side,” varsity tennis player and junior Amitoj Singh said. “[We are] limited to singles so that not many people are on the court.”

Other sports like soccer have not been able to get as close to normalcy as tennis. This is because soccer requires a lot of contact between people. The pandemic has restricted contact play for any sport. 

“[Boys’ Soccer has] revamped their plan for practice to ensure all activity is non-contact,” soccer player and sophomore Shaya Sharifi said. “I feel excited to be able to practice again, but hope that this change is temporary.”

Fall sports are set to begin in December and spring sports are scheduled to kick off in March 2021.