With the introduction of a new, redesigned sports schedule from the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) due to the Covid-19 pandemic, athletes all over Illinois have had their seasons turned upside down. With some fall sports seasons moving to spring and some spring sports moving to the summer, many high school athletes have been impacted by the effects of the new rules and regulations. 

Jordan Filicette – Girls Swimming

Swimming is the only indoor sport being held in the fall season. Jordan Filicette, a junior on the girls varsity swim team, has experienced how much the sport has changed first-hand. 

“Our schedule has changed a lot,” she said. “Normally, we would have meets on weekdays, but now all but two of our meets are on Saturdays. Also, normally we have invites (meets with six teams or more), but those have all been cancelled.” 

Their season was also cut a month short to fit the IHSA guidelines. Although this has irritated some of the swimmers on the LHS team, they’ve expressed their gratitude for being able to have a season.

“The rules are hard to get used to, but they’ve allowed us to have a season, and they’re keeping us safe,” Filicette explained. “I know a lot of us were worried about the virus, but with the rules, we all feel safer.” 

Some of these rules include wearing a mask at all times, except when an athlete is in the water, as well as not crowding around the pool walls all at once, which was previously allowed. 

Although Filicette said she “wouldn’t change any of the rules,” she would like to be able to “do more of the fun activities, like team pasta parties, if there weren’t as many risks involved.”

Brenden Max – Boys Golf

Junior Brenden Max has had a non-traditional start to his first year on the varsity golf team. What would have been an otherwise smooth fall season has been changed in a lot of minor ways, especially the team’s schedule. 

The varsity boys golf team was supposed to compete in six 18-hole matches, invitationals and tournaments throughout the course of the season. All of these matches were cancelled. The team is still competing in nine-hole matches, however.

Despite getting his season cut short, Max, like the rest of his team, is still trying to stay optimistic, as he said that “I’m just glad we’re playing high school golf at all … We weren’t enthusiastic about the rules at first, but we’re glad to be playing. The practices and nine-hole matches have been amazing.” 

The new rules implemented this year have both helped and hurt the athletes. 

One rule that helps gives golfers an advantage when a ball is played from a bunker. 

“We are meant to play ‘pick and place,’ which means in the bunker, we can pick the ball up and place it to give ourselves the best possible lie in a bunker with no rake,” Max said. 

That means a player can move the golf ball to wherever they think they’ll have the best possible shot. These rules are the same for the girls team as well. 

One rule that most of the team disliked was having to wear masks while playing. 

“It didn’t make sense to wear a mask because in golf we’re already six feet apart,” argued Max.  

The rules have since eased up, at first making golfers wear masks only on the tee box to now having no requirements for masks at all. Despite there being not many regulations, the golf team still feels safe playing during a pandemic. 

“I think coming to golf is a great way for us to forget about the pandemic and just play golf with the boys,” Max said.

Cristina Tuduri – Girls Tennis

In tennis, a player usually picks a ball up after the point is over. With the new IHSA regulations, however, that’s not allowed. This is just one of the many rules that’s been added into the sport to protect players and coaches during the Covid-19 pandemic. Senior captain Cristina Tuduri, along with her teammates, has had some trouble adapting to these new rules. 

“Obviously we don’t think the rules are fun, and it’s hard to teach yourself to not pick up a ball during practice or a match, but the whole team understands it’s for our safety and our greater good,” Tuduri stated. 

Other rules include not being able to shake the hands of opponents before or after matches, only being able to high five with rackets and having to get their temperature checked before practice. 

“For matches, every player gets their own set of tennis balls with their initials on them, and we can only touch the balls with our own initials,” she explained. 

Like other sports, the tennis schedule has also changed drastically, with Saturday tournaments being substituted for dual matches. This does, however, allow the team to practice more, as they have less matches than last year.

Despite all the changes that have affected the girls’ performance and altered the overall experience, Tuduri said that “tennis has definitely helped me relax, socialize safely, and boost my mood countless times. The team is full of amazing girls that never fail to make me laugh, and that helps a lot during a pandemic.”

Andrew Clark – Boys Cross Country

Despite the few major changes to how the boys and girls cross country teams operate, only one of the new rules has really affected the team’s practices. 

Senior captain Andrew Clark stated that “we have had to move our practices to Adler Park this year to avoid coming into contact with other fall sports that may be practicing at LHS. The main changes resulting from COVID have been in the races.” 

In a traditional cross country race, every runner would line up at the start line and begin the race at the same time. Now, runners of the same team are sent off one at a time, with a 15-second gap in between each competitor. After all of the runners from one school are sent off, there is a 15-minute break before the next school can send off their first runner.

Although these rules have been made to protect the athletes, they have not been met with high praise, as Clark argued that “the race alterations are defeating the spirit of the sport. Cross country is a place-based sport focused on pushing yourself harder than the competitor next to and ahead of you. By getting rid of other runners around you, competitors are unable to know where they need to be to push ahead to the next spot to help their team score.” 

Despite these criticisms, Clark said he and his teammates “are happy to have any sort of opportunity to compete with each other and with other schools.”

Blake Ellingson – Football

Varsity football was one of the three fall sports to be moved to the spring, and this change has had a significant effect on the team. One of the players who felt this change significantly is three-year starting quarterback and captain Blake Ellingson. Ellingson, who is being heavily recruited by multiple colleges, has had his recruitment process all jumbled up. 

“Recruiting has been strange,” he stated. “Some visits for Division I schools were held virtually, which was really weird. Others were cancelled completely. In a sport gilded with so much talent, it’s important to get your name out there, especially to coaches.”

“Being active on Twitter is also super important because that’s where most coaches will contact you,” Ellingson said. With no games going on for college coaches to attend, Ellingson added that it’s also important to attend football showcases, which are “highly recommended, as it’s the only real way for coaches to see you in action.”