Sports have taken a deep halt due to COVID-19, and spring sports were the ones that have lost the most amount of practice time. Senior Mia Schubert has been the captain of the Track team both last year and this year, and trying to lead the team during these times has been an odd experience.
“Last year was tough because we only had a week of practice before COVID hit,” said Schubert. “Everyone, even the coaches, were thinking that everything was fine and the season would quickly go back to normal.”
Being the captain was especially difficult for Schubert, since she knew that keeping the teammates hopeful is part of the job. “I tried to continue contacting people to keep their hopes up so they wouldn’t have their season lost, said Schubert. “We wanted our team to keep working out and continuing practicing so people wouldn’t be too out of shape.”

Another aspect was the competitive nature of track and field, and how stopping practice might damage the team’s athleticism. “We knew that other teams would do that since COVID is an opportunity to practice, so we wanted to stay in shape,” said Schubert.

Abiding by COVID-19 guidelines is an important part of the upcoming season. “Right now we have tri-meets going on (3 schools max) for the COVID guidelines.”

While they all understand that wearing masks is very important, it is especially difficult to do with running and track. “Practices will have masks on all the time, even when running. That’s a shift and will be a hurdle for running, but we will need to do that for safety,” said Schubert. “We especially need to take extra precautions because of how many people are on track. With cross country, we had the liberty of being able to take our masks off while running because there were less people and more spread out, but we won’t be able to do that with track.”

Team building and bonding is another stride Schubert will be trying to achieve, especially with captains practices. “It is my hope that during captains practices will help us get in shape and also get close with the other teammates. That didn’t happen much last year because of distance,” said Schubert. “I also want to get close with the other captains, because Ivan and Jack just got chosen and I don’t know them that well. I know Michael from cross country, but I’m hoping to get closer with everyone else too.”