Masked up: Athletes return to play following coronavirus guidelines
Athletes returning to their sports have found masks to be a challenge, but also essential to safety and strengthening bonds.
May 18, 2021
After being canceled last spring due to the coronavirus pandemic, the tennis, baseball, soccer, and track and field seasons have returned, but athletes have one extra piece of equipment: a mask.
While the Illinois Department of Public Health and Illinois High School Association no longer require masks for lower risk sports like baseball, tennis and track and field, the University of Chicago still requires Lab athletes to wear masks for soccer, baseball and tennis, according to Athletics Director David Ribbens. Track and field athletes are required to put on a mask before and after races.
Rather than letting mask wearing hinder performance, players recognize the practice as essential for staying safe and use shared pandemic experiences to strengthen bonds.
“It hasn’t really affected our performance at all other than sometimes it can be a bit hard to breathe, but if anything it kind of almost did bonding, like it’s a bit difficult to do this, but we’re all like doing it together,” Stella Sturgill, a ninth grader on the soccer team, said.
Stella said that masks mainly affect the team’s performance during hot or rainy days. With the pandemic, the soccer team won’t be able to hold pasta parties, but traditional bonding experiences have been partly replaced by experiences derived from mask wearing.
“A lot of us are kind of bonding, I guess, over having a really bad mask tan because it’s, like, kind of funny, and it’s like really not the cutest,” Stella said.
Sophomore Ameya Deo, a player on the tennis team, said that team spirit remains strong despite mask wearing and other social distancing guidelines.
“That doesn’t stop us from still giving praise to our player for hyping up the other team members, for doing something good,” Ameya said. “Just because we’re wearing a mask, we just, I guess, go through it together, and actually, I guess that experience helps us because we’re all like, ‘OK, we’re in the same boat.’”
Senior Sophie Raphael, another player on the soccer team, said a factor contributing to team spirit was the long wait for the opportunity to play due to the canceled season last year.
“I honestly think like COVID may have made team spirit better just because I know for me, I was so desperate to play last year and I couldn’t,” Sophie said, “so it makes me want to work harder this year.”
Although more experienced players had to integrate both ninth and tenth graders into the team this year, Stella said she immediately felt comfortable on the team.
“I almost sort of anticipated that it would feel like ‘Oh, I don’t want to talk to them because they’re juniors or because they’re seniors,’ but that didn’t really happen at all,” Stella said. “I don’t know if that happens in normal years or not. I feel like all of us were just really appreciative to, like, have this opportunity to do this.”
While Lab athletes wear masks, baseball player Avi Keysar noted how players from other teams often do not, but he doesn’t feel that it puts the team at a disadvantage.
“It’s kind of funny to see the contrast between our school and their school, but no, I really don’t think it changes the game too much,” Avi said. “Honestly, I’m just really happy we got a season. Mask or no mask, it doesn’t really change it.”
Considering the possibility of a COVID-19 case on the team, baseball head coach Luke Zavala said that players have been mostly focusing on the team’s own practices rather than other teams.
“We talked about it from a community aspect because if someone on the team gets sick, and it turns out that they were within six feet of all these other players, whether it’s on a bus or whether it’s in a dugout, you know, there’s a good chance that the whole team gets shut down,” Mr. Zavala said.
Not taking the opportunity to play for granted, Sophie feels that wearing a mask while playing is a small sacrifice if it allows the season to continue.
“There’s nothing like playing for your team like wearing this school’s colors on your back and like having your classmates cheer you on from the sidelines,” Sophie said, “so that’s just like a really special experience, and so I think I’ve just been looking forward to that for so long that it doesn’t matter to me if I have to wear a mask.”
