Starting a sports season in the middle of a pandemic can be complicated. Especially when trying to social distance during practices, matches and tournaments. With the right amount of safety precautions and guidance, the wrestlers should be able to stay safe.

“I feel that COVID-19 has really ruined my year. We lost two really good tournaments that would have been extremely fun to compete in. I lost a good bit of matches that I will never get to wrestle in because we missed all of this time. I just hope COVID doesn’t take anymore from this than it already has,” senior Trent Schultheis said.

All wrestlers, especially seniors, have been greatly affected by not having as many tournaments and practices as they did last season. Being together and bonding with their teammates is one of the things that the team loves most about playing a sport. Having a bond like that is truly unlike any other bond, and COVID-19 hitting has really affected their time being spent together on the mats. 

“Due to the coronavirus this year, our wrestling season has been cut down from four months to just a single month. It has been an incredibly odd season, especially after practicing for so long and then getting shut down again. Even with the season being trimmed down so short, I think that our team has a fair shot at doing well this season with all of the ninth graders coming up this year. This helped fill a lot of the weights that we were missing, and I think that is going to give us a good shot at doing well this year,” sophomore Trent McCray said.

After losing two tournaments and multiple practices, the team has really lost out. They could’ve gotten a lot of practice from that, but they lost the practice and experience because of quarantine. In hopes of doing good this year with the few tournaments they will have, they surely will work their hardest at every practice they have. 

While being with each other on the mat, wrestlers physically cannot stay away from each other while competing. Staying safe is very important in today’s society, so they don’t get shut down completely and get even less practice than they already have. 

Having the pandemic going on definitely makes playing sports harder with less practices, games and matches. Working through it together as a team can really help during this time. Being with each other and helping each other through these sports as much as they can, can really help the team.