Although a pandemic ended the last semester of school on May 15, there is still hope that summer practices and tryouts for fall sports will not be canceled. Many coaches, however, put precautions in place just in case the quarantine is in full effect during the summer. Many coaches are hoping that there will be a fall season.
“We honestly just don’t know,” head volleyball coach Mr. Mike Brandon said. “Our hope is that we will have a workable solution to the situation by August. We are going to prepare during the summer in the mindset that our season is going to happen. If we are still under quarantine conditions, the likelihood of having a season is low.”
On the other hand, not having the summer practices will not affect other sports as much. Although it is nice to practice together, they do not necessarily need to be together because they can train at home.
“I coach cross country and so for us, the uncertainty of this summer will harm us, but probably not to the extent that it will in other sports,” head cross country coach Mr. Bryce Brunswig said. “If we can’t meet this summer, I will plan on sending out a summer training plan that will consist of exercises and runs and exercises that our athletes should complete that week. We will most likely create buddy groups in which our runners will check in with each other to see how they are doing and hold each other accountable in completing their workouts.”
The only other dilemma facing coaches is the tryout process. Both players and coaches must be present for this difficult process to make the decisions necessary to set team rosters.

“We have a series of evaluations in the fall during 2-a-days practices to determine team assignments,” Coach Brandon said. “If we can’t train together as a group, we will likely postpone tryouts until such time as we can train as a group. We are waiting to see.”
Even tryouts may be important to most sports, some do not need them. Cross Country does not do cuts, but they do have to keep track of the participants so they can get the exercises out to their team.
“Everyone makes the team with cross country,” Coach Brunswig said. “There are no cuts, everyone who comes out gets to train and compete at our meets. This is one of the great things about cross country is that there is room for everyone and everyone is training to do the same thing, race a 5k.”
Overall, there are many unknowns that will hopefully become more apparent as the summer approaches, coaches and players are still hoping for a practice season this summer that will lead to a successful fall season.