Both girls and boys soccer teams have lost a lot of time due to COVID-19 and have gotten ready for a shorter season to begin. All of the soccer coaches have already conditioned players to get them ready for the season. Both teams have already had tryouts, but the girl’s team tryouts had a late start when canceled and moved to Feb. 22-24. 

Conditioning took place around the start of February in the gym. The athletes did a lot of core strengthening, running and upper body workouts. The girl’s soccer coach, Alex Dunn, feels that it is more difficult this year than in previous years as they have to work more one-on-one with the players to build up their skills. The boy’s Soccer coach, Josh Backman, noticed that players lacked conditioning during tryouts. 

Tryouts began on Friday, Feb. 19, for the boy’s team. Tryouts for the girl’s teams were supposed to begin on Feb. 20, but were postponed till Feb. 22-24. 

“We had to move tryouts because of the weather Saturday morning,” Dunn said. “The field was covered with snow, and safety is our first priority.”

Dunn is expecting the number of girls that tryout to be similar to normal years, but Backman experienced something different.

 “So far I have noticed a low turnout for the players,” Backman said.

 This did not come as a surprise to Backman as that’s what he expected. Other than the low turnout, safety precautions were the only other difference from previous years. Health checks, temperature checks, mask-wearing, sanitizing equipment and social distancing are all requirements both teams have to follow. 

As both teams have to strictly follow these requirements Dunn is most concerned about not getting as much time for the team to play together. 

“In a normal season, we have most of the summer for (voluntary) preseason conditioning and then a couple weeks of practice after tryouts,” Dunn said. 

Despite this Dunn has no doubt that the girls will put in the work for a successful season.

As both conditioning and tryouts have begun, games did not start until March 6. This is the same for both teams. Spectators are only allowed at games if a player has invited them. Only spectators from the home team are allowed to attend with a maximum of 100 spectators, but it will increase to 200 people on Mar. 14.

Morgan Volpa is a player on the varsity girls soccer team. She has been playing for the school for three years but this is her first time on varsity. Volpa understands how tryouts can be nerve-wracking for new players but overall thinks that everyone is very welcoming.

“I’m not worried at all about playing. I am just so excited and ready to finally play” Volpa said.”I absolutely adore everyone on the team and I’m so excited to see how we play together because already we have great chemistry.”