The first season of sports at MHS this year, which includes boys and girls cross country, swimming and diving, and girls tennis, began competition on Feb. 15, according to an announcement sent out by MHS Athletics Director Johanna Butcher via email. These competitions were conducted at socially distanced meets and matches for cross country and tennis and virtual meets for swimming, and the season’s last competitions were held on March 26 as the second season’s sports began, according to the same email.
Sophomore Sahil Raj, who is on the cross country team, shared his thoughts as the sports season closes, and described his experience with it. “For practices, we usually practice 5 days a week, Monday through Friday,” Raj said via email. “We do different workouts each day; Coach Yohaness calls it feeding our legs different food. We run all around Milpitas, not just around our school. Some runs we do include Old Calaveras/New Calaveras, Dixon, Hidden Lake, and much more. Before we come to practice, we fill out a health screening form and show it to the coach for verification.”
Junior Faith Wong, also on the cross country team, described the changes that have been made to cross country meets to accommodate the new social distancing guidelines. One such change is having to run in waves during the meets, Wong said via email, with about four to five runners in each wave per time slot, as opposed to all of the girls or boys running at once in previous cross country seasons.
“Despite the shorter season of only 8 weeks, the athletic department is doing a good job following the accommodations. Though it is a shorter season, I have been able to have fun and meet new people,” Wong said.
Sophomore Emily Jang, a varsity girls tennis player, also described her experience with this sports season. “We still go about our regular practices and tournaments in terms of schedule, but COVID guidelines have made the experience a little different,” Jang said via email. “During practices, we start with a health check-in and then go about our technique drilling… Everyone has to wear a mask and… as for tournaments, games still go the same way, except we make the extra effort to not share balls with our opponents.”
Health screenings with temperature checks are conducted every day, according to Jang. Social distancing is maintained as much as possible, especially on buses to and at away games, Jang added. One of the biggest adjustments is having to wear masks; most athletes were not used to wearing a mask at all times, especially while doing conditioning, Jang shared.
For other athletes who are just about to start competing, here’s some advice from the first season athletes:
- “Get used to wearing masks while exercising.” – Emily Jang
- “Spend the most time with your teammates as possible. Athletics doesn’t have to just be about playing your sport: it’s also about the experiences that you share with your team, the highs and lows that COVID-19 shouldn’t be able to take away.” – Emily Jang
- “Take all the opportunities to improve and don’t postpone progress because you now have more time and can work on individual goals more.” – Fardin Haque
- “Start training before the season starts, because competitions, meets, games, and matches come relatively quickly.” – Faith Wong
- “Have fun and do your best while staying safe!” – Faith Wong