Kenny Wheeler

Seniors Harmony Creasy and Emily Wood qualifying for Drake relays in their 4×100 relay with juniors Kora Ruff and Ava Kwak, despite COVID-19 setbacks.

With COVID-19, lots of athletes lost their sports season. This was especially hard on spring athletes due to the onset of the pandemic happening around the same time as when the start of the season. 

This means that now, Pleasant Valley seniors spring athletes have not had a season since their sophomore year. 

For some, this did not impact their athletic ability, because they participate in multiple other sports seasons to keep them to continue developing their abilities. However, those who only participate in track faced a set back once they finally returned to the track..

Senior Harmony Creasy’s running career was directly impacted by the pandemic. She is one of PVGTF’s top-ranked runners, focusing all of her athletic abilities on track. However, with COVID-19 she went two years without getting a season or chance to work at her sport. 

“I felt as prepared as I could be for missing out on a whole season. I trained a good portion during the summer, but when we started school I wasn’t doing as much as I could have been. Missing out felt like we were restarting everything,” Creasy stated.

Creasy believes that other runners who participated in other sports throughout the year have an extra advantage. Those sports gave them a head start as they were training seasons before track.

However, losing out on a season was not the only set back she felt. “Our coach had decided to change some things from what we have done in previous seasons. And because most of our team is freshman and sophomores, everyone was learning from the beginning and we were all in it together,” she explained.

While the pandemic set back the track team, many still found themselves very prepared for the season. One for this is that many girls on the team are multi-sport athletes, which allowed them to stay in shape and continue working out and practicing while out of track.

Senior Emily Wood, another one of the girls track team and field team’s top performers, felt prepared for track due to her work in other sports, but could see some drawbacks on the team. “We were prepared for track this year but it was harder to go right into outdoor meets because we didn’t get an indoor season or last year,” she explained.

While PV athletics have faced a lot of changes and challenges in the past year due to the pandemic, they were still able to have many of their sports seasons and come out on top.