The spring season is starting up again, back at it after the abrupt ending to the March 2020 season. This year is unorthodox, but despite mandatory masks and the cutback on fans, these teams continue to push through. 

Girls Lacrosse 

Many COVID-related changes have been made to ensure the safety of players on the team. For teams to get their lacrosse sticks checked, they must now put them in a line on the ground for the ref to come around and check each stick. After games, teams would usually shake hands to be sportsmanlike, but due to COVID there is no handshaking.

Some rules changes were unrelated to COVID. “A new rule for us is that goalies have to wear chest protectors,” said lacrosse coach Ms. Marie Schmucker. 

“Missing a season last year has affected us tremendously because we have kids

who are coming into 9th grade who have not played since 7th, and we have no seniors, so we are also a young team,” said Ms. Schmucker. Due to the missing season, much of the team has never played at the high school. “One of the goals for this season is to catch everyone up with the new rules and getting both the sophomore and freshman comfortable with playing at the high school level,” said sophomore Sophia Liott.

Boys Tennis 

Adjustments have been made to make sure everyone is safe. “We must use our own tennis balls at matches this year which is a change from previous years. So each court will be hauling six tennis balls rather than three,” said tennis coach Mr. Kyle McGrath. 

The roster is small this year. Mr. McGrath said he believed this is due to the lack of season last year and not having “opportunity to develop some players who would be playing.” 

Spring Track and Field

Due to the loss of their spring season last year the team “lost a lot of the momentum they created” said coach Mr. Kevin Garland. They wrapped up their indoor winter season with going to nationals in New York and got hit hard by the school’s COVID closure in March, he said. 

For many, junior year is the year to gain more ground with recruitment.  This year’s seniors missed this opportunity but are making up for it. “So many college coaches are judging me based on my sophomore year stats,” said senior Kasey Savage. “On the other hand, I got to give my legs a break for a couple months, which I feel like benefited me. I started training

intensely again two and a half months ago and this is the best I’ve felt in a while. I am jumping farther and higher than I ever have, cannot be mad about that,” said Kasey. He hopes to win states in at least one of his events and break all the school’s jump records.

“Our hope for the season is to stay healthy, repeat as league champs and have more athletes for the girls and boys qualify for districts and states,” said Mr. Garland.

Girls track coach Mrs. Anna Snow said that there is a strong group of seniors excited for the season since last season was lost. Standouts include seniors Thea Aquino, Ally Vergara, Maddie Grande, Diamond Parkinson and Catherine Portelli.

The season will look different due to COVID. All the big invitational meets were canceled, but there are smaller scale ones that they are able  to participate in.  Another change is all meets will be held at home. Girls and boys will compete at home every Tuesday, so come on out!

Baseball 

Losing the ability to practice round the year as they usually would, “this group is completely new and working together for the first time,” said baseball coach Mr. Peter Moore. 

“I have been overwhelmed with pride in the way that our group has gelled together so much in just the one week that we have been together. I believe that we have a group of players that care about each other and who are working towards a common goal,” said Mr. Moore. 

Senior Jimmy Tooley said “losing last year sucked, and I feel like it forced me to put in more work this year compared to any other year, so in a way it helped.”

He suffered a collision with another teammate, causing them both to miss their first game because of concussion protocol. Jimmy hopes to have fun with his friends, play the best he can and win games. 

Softball

The loss of their offseason gym workouts due to COVID was a big upset for this team, “that was a great time to build team chemistry, so we are doing that now,” said softball coach Ms. Kelly Krier. Building chemistry this season will allow them to “come together and not let drama or other things

separate them,” said junior and captain Kendal Leitner.

“The loss of the season made me feel like I was working for nothing. During quarantine I practiced everyday to try and keep my fundamentals up but there were no games or practices to work for so I felt sorta unmotivated,” said Kendal.

Senior and captain Kayla Tauber hopes to keep the team’s spirits high and, “see everyone be successful. Lifting others up and keeping them focused can have an impact on them by knowing their teammate are behind them.”

“HH Softball is going to do great things this year, and I am so proud to be their coach. We look forward to a challenging season and we hope some fans stop out to catch our games,” said Ms. Krier. 

Boys Lacrosse

While losing their season last year,

the boys lacrosse team knows how to come back. “We have to come in

and get after it during practice and really knock that rust off,” said team captain Dylan Fesmire.

“Going hard everyday will eventually make a difference, and we’ve just got to try and get better every day,” said Dylan.