Athletics play a major role at Germantown Academy, but with the challenges of working around COVID-19 and being part of longest continuous interscholastic rivalry in the country, GA knew they needed to devise a plan for all sports to continue with serious safety precautions in place.
This year, sports look a little different than normal. In ordinary circumstances, the fall season kick off with games and practices occurring throughout the weeks. However, in an email sent out at the beginning of the year, it was announced that the Inter-Academic Athletic League decided to create three, seven-week competitive seasons starting in the new year. Winter sports will lead off this new plan, with the fall and spring seasons scheduled to follow.
With no competitive season set for the fall, athletics at GA have been very different this year. Instead of having sports practice during their respective seasons, the fall has been broken down into three sections. Fall sports started practicing on September 14th and continued until the week of the 28th. Soon after, spring sports started practicing on October 5th and will continue to train until the week of the 19th. Lastly, winter sports will begin their training on October 26th until the week of November 9th. Once all seasons have had their designated fall practice weeks, there will be a week of conditioning and team wrap ups the week of November 16th.
Even though sports can proceed, there were a number of precautions made to keep the environment at GA as safe as possible, with the well-being of students and faculty being the school’s top priority. Some of these safety guidelines included wearing a mask upon arrival and departure from practice, maintaining social distancing, and avoiding contact with any of the equipment without sanitizing. Members of the GA community are trusted to make decisions while thinking about the safety of others; however, many athletes have had difficulties with following these guidelines. Athletes who choose not to wear a mask or social distance throughout the duration of practice or after will be forced to shut down their team practice for three days. Athletes that play indoor sports such as volleyball, are required to wear masks at all times.
With one of longest, fiercest rivalries in the Inter-Ac, GA-PC Day is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the fall season for athletes, coaches, students, and families from all divisions of the school. However, with fall sports postponed until late February, there have been conversations about postponing GA-PC to the spring.
Athletes who have been preparing all year round for their seasons are missing out on the opportunity to display their skills to collegiate spectators. This could potentially impact their prospects at playing at the collegiate level – something some athletes have dreamed of since their childhood.
With all the changes in place, GA is in for a wild yet hopeful year on the athletic field. As the GA community tries to balance athletics with safety, navigating this year will certainly be worth keeping an eye on.
Photo by Jenna Rothenstein ’21