How SJC athletes are training during the pandemic
The pandemic has brought many exciting experiences to a halt due to Covid-19’s very dangerous health risks. Competing with this international issue is difficult, but the St. John’s community has been able to stay strong.
Even faced with coronavirus restrictions, fall sports teams such as football, volleyball and cross country have all been participating in workouts and training. This training is heavily moderated with rules and guidelines that must be followed in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
A few members of our St. John’s sports community have spoken out about this issue including Xavier Terry ‘21, a St. John’s Varsity Football safety. “Everything we do is outside and distanced and after you are done, everything must be thoroughly wiped down,” Terry said when asked about workouts.
This process is very similar to other spring sports participating in offseason workouts. Rachel Richardson ‘21, SJC’s Varsity 2019 Volleyball MVP, also spoke about her experiences with both club and school protocol for training describing it as much different than expected since we had to clean our hands every water break. She also said in order to keep the balls clean we wiped them down after every practice.
Sanitary precautions are clearly heavily emphasized. Another member of the St. John’s College High School community, Donald Tyler III ‘21, is a member of the Cross Country team and explains his experience to be similar to other sports. At first he completed his runs and documented them on a spreadsheet but when school began he and his team went through a different process. “We had to take a survey, get our temperature and medical information checked to ensure there wasn’t a chance we could spread the virus,” he said. This process was to be a part of the training which required every member of the team to be six feet apart during the entire session.
All St. John’s athletes are dealing with difficult challenges but are getting their physical work done both away and with the team, even if it is not right next to each other.
