Out-of-season conditioning has been a blast so far for not only myself, but for the coaches, trainers, and other student-athletes. Charlottesville High School and the Virginia High School League (VHSL) gave the first opportunity for a return to interscholastic activities to student-athletes since March. That was a very long 8 months ago. The last school-related sporting activity took place on March 12, just one day before students were let out of school due to COVID-19 concerns. Little did we know, the rest of the school year and all of the 2020-21 school year, so far, would become virtual. The Charlottesville School Board has pushed back returning to in-person learning multiple times since the beginning of the school year. Although, they seem to be closing in on an actual plan and start date for face-to-face learning to begin. A final vote on the current plan will take place at the next board meeting on December 16. This plan involves Pre-K through 6th-grade students returning to in-person classes 4 days a week on January 11, 2021, and 7th-12th grade students returning for 2 days a week at the beginning of the 2nd semester, February 1st, 2021. The overall presumption amongst the community is that the school board will vote in agreement with this current plan. 

Although students have not returned to in-person learning yet, they were allowed to begin out-of-season conditioning starting November 9th. All student-athletes are given two opportunities a week to participate in out-of-season conditioning as of right now. Different sports have different training days during the week that accommodate their team the best. For example, basketball has conditioning on Mondays and Wednesdays, while wrestling, another winter sport, has them on Thursdays and Fridays. 

Playing for the football team, I have conditioning on Tuesdays and Thursdays with my teammates, along with field hockey and other fall/spring sport athletes as well. We go through a variety of drills with Kenny Szabo, a sports trainer at CHS, while following health and safety guidelines. 

Kenny Szabo, the Director of Sports Performance at ADAPT, has done a phenomenal job getting players back in shape for upcoming sports seasons. His experience training NBA and NFL players this past off-season has helped me and my fellow teammates tremendously. Doing all he can with the guidelines put in place, Szabo has “placed an emphasis on the fundamentals.” Specifically, he says, “I am focusing not only on exposing the athletes to a variety of movements, but teaching the athletes how to move efficiently through each movement.” Szabo also said he is placing a high emphasis on “balance, and preparing soft tissue for return to competition through isometric holds and isolating common injury sites in sports.” 

In particular, the safety guidelines put in place consist of 6 feet of spacing between student-athletes, no touching other student-athletes, face masks, and a required temperature and COVID questionnaire check-in before entering. From the COVID precautions to the training itself, I have felt like the conditioning has been very successful. 

I appreciate our athletic director, Rodney Redd, for setting this up and managing the conditioning as he has so far. He has carried out the guidelines necessary, while also making it fun for the players by playing music (non-explicit of course) to try and keep us in a good mood while Coach Szabo tires us out. 

In addition to Mr. Redd, none of this could have been possible without our head athletic trainer Ms. Matheny. She was there the first-day gathering physicals and consent forms that were needed in order for kids to enter the facility, as well as the temperature check-ins and questionnaires. Regarding the athletes’ cooperation with the COVID rules put in place, Ms. Matheny said, “I think the kids have been very cooperative, obviously every once in a while they forget and get a little close to their friends, but overall I think it’s a positive turnout and kids are very compliant.” Doing all she can, Ms. Matheny has been the driving force in keeping students and coaches safe at these conditioning events. 

Looking at the conditioning from a different perspective, I think the return of interscholastic activities has boosted the morale of student-athletes altogether. This is the first time a lot of kids have seen their fellow classmates in 8 months. I think that is the most important outcome of these events because some kids have gone ¾ of a year without being able to see or do anything with their teammates.

Sports are known to be the ultimate tool for kids to learn and develop skills needed in the real world later on in life. While playing sports, kids have the opportunity to learn skills like cooperation, communication, teamwork, leadership, self-confidence, and perseverance, just to name a few. These are essential qualities and skills that will benefit them for the rest of their lives, and to have some kids out of this for 8 months is just disheartening and sad. I remember when I was younger, sports were on a rotation throughout the entire year. It was just one season after another. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve narrowed down somewhat, to one or two sports and just training those specifically, but I could not fathom how it is for younger kids that had to take such a long gap while not being able to play anything. The effect of sports on kids goes much further than improvement in the sport itself. 

 I am glad to see some kids participating and enjoying some sort of interscholastic normalcy during these trying times.