Lacrosse player Ava Pihlstrom ’22 follows workouts that have been put together by BGL’s coach
Spring Sport Athletes Share Training Schedules, React to Cancellation of Season
Spring athletes and captains share how they are staying connected and look towards the summer and future seasons
Before the spring sports’ seasons were officially cancelled, different teams were staying active and preparing for their upcoming seasons. Eliot Mitchell ‘21, explains that her lacrosse coach “made a spreadsheet and we have five workouts a week and then like wall ball and stick challenges and things like that.” Lacrosse captain, Levi Hlavac ’20, shares that the boys lacrosse team is doing similar activities: “And then we have an app that we use. You like to put your phone on your bicep and then you play wall ball and it counts your reps for wall ball, and so we try to get 5000 reps in one week.” Now however, teams are focusing on the future, whether that means coming together this summer, or preparing for the next season.
Without this season, teams feel more pressure to work hard in the off-season to prepare. Mitchell states, “But next year, the majority of our team are juniors this year, so we will be seniors next year, and it’s our last season, so it is going to be big. […] I am sure it’s going to be putting in a lot of work next year.” Similarly, Carly Shoemate ‘22, track captain, explains the effect of the cancelled season saying, “it definitely would affect the team, especially our girls team, we would have been trying for our third state championship title this year. And not necessarily would have happened, but the fact that we don’t even get a chance to see if it would. So that would definitely affect the mindset going into next season.”
Even teams that are more individual based, like clay target, are affected by the cancelled season. Bailey Abraham ‘21 states, “It’s definitely going to damage team bonding if we don’t have a season this year. But, it’s not like a super high commitment team and it’s pretty individual, so I think it would affect more individuals rather than teams.” Athletes are worried about losing a season, since it is difficult to pick up on skills and routine after two years. Solveig Bingham ‘21, member of the synchronized swimming team, speaks to this sharing, “I know it’s going to be hard for me not to have been able to swim for an entire season and then to come back next year […] So everyone is going to have to do a lot of work.
Although it is disappointing to lose a season, seniors and other players are hoping to spend some time with their team and the sport this summer. James Killilea ‘20, baseball captain, states, “ It’s really weird to think that the last time we might actually have really touched a baseball is that one winter workout we didn’t even think twice about. […] It stinks and at this point we are crossing our fingers for some sort of summer baseball.” Younger athletes are ready to put in the work next year with a newfound appreciation for the sport. Sujit Chepuri ‘21, tennis player, summarizes most feelings, stating, “Hopefully we are more motivated by this all to be a little more grateful for the seasons we do have and taking advantage of all that.”
Online Schooling Brings Change to Long-standing Speech Tradition
Senior speeches take new form online as community is unable to congregate in the building
Carter Puckett delivers her senior speech from home rather than from the podium in the Juliet Nelson Auditorium.
In the midst of a transition into uncharted territory, senior speeches have still found a way to create a sense of community, thrive, and stay beneficial to audience members. At first glance, changing from in-person to online speeches seemed saddening for many seniors. However, Sandy Berkowitz and the remaining seniors’ speeches proceed with less technical difficulties, and the opportunity for a wider range of audience members from the whole Blake community.
Senior Joe Gustaferro ‘20–one of the first to present his speech during the virtual assembly–had envisioned giving his speech in the Juliet Nelson Auditorium (JNA) all of high school. “[He] never envisioned giving [his] senior speech this way.” Gustaferro states, “We’ve all seen a lot of technical difficulties in assemblies before, and someone in my advisory said that she thought it was one of the fewest assemblies with the fewest technical difficulties ever. I didn’t see any issues with it.” With the shift to online learning, senior speeches are having little to no difficulties, shifting away from the ever-present awkwardness of speech delivery.
The scariest part of it for senior Carter Puckett ‘20 was looking down at the bar below, reading about 560 people on the zoom call. In Puckett’s opinion, the experience for her was not the same as giving it in the JNA, but “one of [her] teachers sent [her] an email afterwards saying somehow being in the privacy of my own room it made it more intimate and more powerful.” Puckett states, “I thought that was a cool way of putting it because I did think it added something, a little more special to it than maybe it would’ve been [with] me standing at the podium.”
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