Sports continue to adjust to COVID-19 protocols
With sports and COVID-19 continuing, all of the coaches are learning how to keep their sport in season. One things for sure that all athletes, no matter the sport, are having to make changes to their normal routine.
October 8, 2020
With COVID-19 still spreading, it has been an adjustment for sports teams to stay socially distanced during their games, scrimmages, and matches.
“We have many guidelines to follow this year,” head tennis coach Erica Dopson said. “We keep sanitizer and sanitize balls as well as constantly wearing masks and staying 6 feet apart.”
As a contact sport, football can’t do too much to social distance on the playing field, but the team and Frisco ISD have certain safety precautions in place.
“We have to drive to in town games, so that we are not within six feet of each other for more than 15 minutes,” varsity football player Joseph Hancock said. “If there was a coronavirus case we would have to quarantine, and then we wouldn’t be able to play. I’m not a fan of it, but I’ll do whatever we have to do to play.”
During a baseball game, players are pretty spread out on the field according to junior Michael Coppinger.
“I would say that there is definitely a whole new aspect of caution that we didn’t have to take into account last year,” Coppinger said. “Not only do we have to worry about winning the game and performing well but we also have to remember not to give each other high fives, get in close huddles, and lots of similar things to that. We wear masks at all times during practice, even while we run. We also get constant reminders from our coaches to spread out and have a new hands-free machine to refill our waters if we run out.”
Every student athlete that is having their season right now has had to make some adjustments, from practices to games and scrimmages.
“The biggest change across all sports is the capacity limit of fans. At each venue there are only a certain number of fans allowed at games,” girls’ soccer head coach, Kyle Beggs said. “Along with that, the fans must wear face masks along with distancing themselves from other fans. For the athletes there are some big changes as well. Usually, athletes will sit together on the bench, or stand together on the sidelines. Right now, all athletes must maintain a specific distance apart while on the bench, and they must wear face coverings when they are not participating in the athletic event. Pre- and post-game handshakes have also been removed with opponents to limit contact.”
