Four months without in-person training had its way of yielding anxiousness in local athletes.
Ever since the IHSAA and Indiana Department of Education selected July 6 as the day teams could begin Phase 1 of group workouts, athletes and coaches have had that date circled on their calendars.
Monday, that date finally arrived.
“I’m just happy to be back and moving and out of the house,” Columbus East junior soccer player Korbin Hatcher said. “We’ve been doing all the stuff online and just chatting with the team. I haven’t seen a lot of them since the end of school around spring break.”
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During Phase 1, which is this week and next week, coaches must wear masks at all times during the training sessions. Players have to wear masks, except when they are doing strenuous exercise.
While most teams practiced in the morning, afternoon or evening, and others are set to resume workouts today, one local team couldn’t get wait to get going. The Columbus North boys cross-country team staged its own version of Midnight Madness when it met at midnight on the track for its first workout of the season.
“We’re already a month behind schedule as far as being together as a team and being able to train as a team and working as a group and getting our incoming freshmen involved in our culture,” North boys cross-country coach Danny Fisher said. “We can always run on our own and be pretty fit, but we’re 30 days that we don’t get back to be as a group and as a team, and that means a lot to us. We wanted to create a sense of urgency, and what better way than starting the first minute of the first day we can get back together after 130 days we’ve been apart.”
Like many other teams, the Bull Dog runners stayed connected through the COVID-induced shutdown through Zoom meetings. But North, which is one of the preseason state title favorites, was glad to be back together.
“It’s different,” senior Collin Pruitt said. “We’re used to running at 7:30 every morning, but we’re all excited to get back. I think we all get better together as a whole team than working solo.”
Just a few hours after the Bull Dogs wrapped up their training session, the North boys soccer team took the turf field. Right after that, the football team completed its first of 12 practices in July.
The football players rotated to the weight room and practiced on the field, all while practicing social distancing. North coach Tim Bless felt the practice session was productive as he is slowly trying to ease his team back to form.
“We eased into it by design because when you think about this, this is uncharted territory,” Bless said. “We have a lot of kids that have been getting a lot of work done, and we can’t take that for granted. Probably for a lot of kids, we did less than they thought or wanted us to do, but our mantra today was, ‘Do no harm.’”
Bless said it felt like Christmas Day getting back together with his squad, but there was also another challenge to battle besides COVID-19 — the heat and humidity — with temperatures soaring into the 90s on Monday.
“We’ve been communicating with them for literally the past week about the heat that’s coming — ‘Come to us hydrated, first and foremost,’” Bless said. “We took plenty of water breaks and encouraged them upon departure to may sure to refuel your bodies, adequate water, adequate calories, protein, adequate sleep because we’ll back at it again (tonight).”
Later in the afternoon, a group of North volleyball players conditioned on the turf. Another volleyball group followed early in the evening.
“It was definitely different,” North senior volleyball player Madi Roop said. “A lot of us have been working on our own at home, trying to make sure we stay in shape. I’m just glad we’re back, and we can get trained and ready for the season this year. It’s just nice to see all the hard work everybody’s putting in.”
Junior middle hitter Sarah Bennett agreed.
“It was actually really nice to get back and see all the girls and see a lot of new faces over there,” Bennett said. “I think we all just need to hydrate a little bit more, and these workouts will get a lot easier. I think it was a good start and a great way to kick off the season.”
Both the Bull Dogs and Olympians have new volleyball coaches this year. Ellyn McIntosh is the new coach at East, which begins workouts this morning. Quin Shoultz takes over at North.
“It’s super nice to see the girls and get them back in workouts,” Shoultz said. “It’s a lot different with a coach there than it is on your own. You can’t push yourself as hard as you can when other people are watching.”
Football workouts will be among those at East that will begin today. Hauser volleyball and cross-country also will start today.
Hauser soccer began Monday evening. With winter teams also able to start training in person, the Hauser girls basketball team worked out early Monday morning.
“It was great to be back in the gym, seeing the kids mainly and getting some new kids accommodated,” Hauser girls basketball coach Chad Evans said. “We had a pretty good turnout today, so I was pleased with it. It was pretty light today, and next week will be a little more, and the week after than will be even more.”
While school facilities have been shut down the past few months and live in-person training with coaches was banned by the IHSAA, athletes have had to train on their own or in small groups.
“I think it’s really nice because we also have our coaches with us who can train us and push us in the right direction more because by ourself, we can’t really do much,” East senior soccer player Ben Romig said. “You can still meet with friends, but you can’t do as much without a coach’s direct help because they actually tell you what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it. And being with a team, you can do more drills.”
Sophomore Pete Coriden, who figures to take over in goal for the Olympians, had a simpler reason for his excitement over getting to train with the entire team.
“It’s pretty good because as a goalie, you can’t really practice by yourself,” Coriden said. “I had a lot of trouble practicing, so it’s really good to be out and have people to practice with and to motivate me.”
East did mainly conditioning late Monday afternoon and will be doing more technical, on-ball work today. The Olympians, which made the state’s final four in Class 3A last season, have a new head coach in Josh Gonsior.
“It’s definitely been a challenge over the last few months, going from winter, all the time training and seeing everybody every week and then going to just Zoom meetings every week to finally coming back to reality a little bit,” Gonsior said. “Being able to see each other and train is an amazing opportunity. But it’s also been an amazing challenge with all the protocols that we have to follow, just to keep everybody healthy and hopefully ensure that we have a season.”
