The Coronavirus is making spring athletes realize how much they miss participating in athletics.
Many athletes all over the country are experiencing the effects of the Coronavirus. Iowa was one state that made an announcement allowing spring athletes to compete. However, the normal three month season was going to be compressed into one month, and many weren’t happy about it.
Senior Jenna Aller, a member of the Pleasant Valley girls soccer team, agreed that a month is almost too short. “It stinks that if we do go back that it will only be a month but I think it’s better than nothing,” she said. “A month is not long enough for a team to get where they need to be for state.”
With this time being very stressful for a lot of athletes, many are still utilizing this time to train extra and develop their skills. Jack Donahue, a senior on the boys soccer team, is training with smaller soccer nets at his house. “Our coaches and seniors have done a good job at coming up with various workouts to make sure we are prepared if the season comes back,” he explained.
And while athletes were still hoping for a season, they received some very disappointing news. Iowa Governor, Kim Reynolds, announced on April 17 that school would continue to be closed the rest of the 2019-2020 academic year and that sports would be cancelled.
Even without a season to look forward to, Spartan athletes continue to train. Senior Claire Fields is still doing the workouts the track coaches will post and do tough ab workouts on top of that. Head Coach Kenny Wheeler has made a mini ‘challenge’ for each grade to post on their instagram story showing that they have completed a workout. This type of motivation would encourage the track athletes to do their posted workout.
There are many training programs that are also helping out many athletes in the Quad Cities. Because of social distancing, the Athlete Development Project decided to live stream and send a four-week program to their athletes. The coaches that wrote these workouts wanted their athletes to stay active during this tough time.
Paige Retting, head of TBK Sports Performance for ADP and the sports performance coach for swimming and diving and women’s basketball, wanted to do Facebook live for athletes as well. “We care about our athletes and wanted to make sure they still had something to go off of to ‘stay fit’ while they might not have other options,” she said. “Our athletes come first. We will do anything to see and help them succeed.”
Many seniors are trying to make the most out of this break. It being their last season, it comes with an extra bittersweet ending this time. Senior nights are cancelled, home games/meets are cancelled. This situation is causing many seniors to become angered and in distress. It’s not a situation the class of 2020 would ever see themselves in, unfortunately this is reality.
