By socially distancing the sport, the baseball team was able to play this season and minimize the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Once players found out they were having a season this year, they started training and working to improve their skills.
“Obviously we are fortunate here to do some off season training due to our schools being open,” varsity coach Michael Childs said.
They started off with Fall Ball for three weeks. While it wasn’t required, a majority of the players attended. During the first week of November, players started lifting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning from 6-7:15 a.m.
Approximately 32 players participated in the morning workouts during November.
“We can’t require them to do anything but, as I tell the kids, you have to be prepared for the season,” Childs said.
Once the season started they did not have many restrictions as far as social distancing or masks. Baseball is already a socially distanced sport and as long as everyone is “actively engaged” there is no concern of contract tracing.
“This season hasn’t really been affected by COVID-19. The one big issue is losing players because they have to quarantine,” junior Hunter Weitzel said.
Mask restrictions vary depending on the school.
“The mask restrictions kind of vary depending on the school for away games, sometimes,” senior Zack Crouthamel said. “For home games we just wear our gators around our neck and if we have a mask we can have it on our chin.”
The varsity team has not had to make many changes and the same goes for the junior varsity team.
“So far we’ve been playing pretty well for what we’ve had,” junior varsity coach Brian Ruth said.
The same mask rules apply to them as well and the same social distancing rules.
According to Ruth he was “most proud” that four of his players had the opportunity to play for varsity this year. This is an “impressive” opportunity they were given but unfortunately, Childs lost three players for anywhere from two weeks to one month.
“We lost a player who had COVID-19 so we are still waiting for him to come back,” Child said. “He’s our number two pitcher as of now and he’s not back until April 26 so it’s tough losing him for two weeks.”
Although the season is not over yet, the varsity team won against Pennridge on April 14, which Childs described as their “best moment of the season so far.”
“We beat Pennridge. They went up 4-0 and then we battled back and ended up winning 8-4, so it just showed a lot of team comradery and the never give up attitude,” said Childs.