BY NOAH SORIA, CYPRESS CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
It has almost been a full calendar year that COVID-19 has impacted everyday life, specifically college students. That includes sports here at Cypress College.
College athletes everywhere have been going through some sort of hiatus over these past 11 months. This has affected athletes’ schedules, fundamentals, and their overall game.
Wesley McCurtis, the school’s Athletic Director explained what’s next for Cypress College sports this semester.
“The spring 1 season is supposed to take place through April 17, so the traditional fall sports have moved to the early spring, or spring 1 season. So that’s men’s/women’s basketball, men’s/women’s soccer, men’s/women’s water polo, and women’s volleyball,” he said. “We have started (COVID-19) testing as of February 10. Our test strategy – we worked with the Orange County health department, our health center on campus, our team doctor, and athletic training staff. We’re testing Monday through Friday. Every athlete, every coach, every athletic staff member.”
Within the next couple weeks, McCurtis said, testing will continue and practice will begin.
“Hopefully, we will play some games between March 1 and April 17 for the spring 1 sports. The spring 2 sports will start practice March 27, so the sports that usually play in the spring which is; baseball, softball, golf, swim, and beach volleyball. Their competitive season is supposed to start April 10, and end June 23,” he said.
Michael McFarland is a pitcher for the Cypress Chargers baseball team. He answered questions about his schedule, playing a collegiate sport during a pandemic, and getting back into the swing of things as a team.
“At the moment Monday through Friday I go straight from my classes in the morning to my own personal workouts which includes going to throw as well as being able to get into the weight room, after this is when I have some free time for studies and homework in order to catch myself up for the next day or week,” said McFarland. “It is a lot different from the fall semester because we aren’t able to have our team weights before our classes in the day and we also aren’t able to go to practice together immediately after, it teaches all of us to have a lot of self-discipline in order to be able to stay on top of our classes, workouts, and other extracurricular activity outside of school like work and such all on our own with really no guide at all.”
McFarland described the overall experience of playing his sport during a pandemic. “It’s all different and obviously not ideal, it has altered my game because I am not able to get the live game repetitions that would help me better my game for the future. No matter how many reps you take-off of the field you’ll never truly get the full experience unless you’re out there on the field with your team again.”
When asked if the team suffered from the hiatus McFarland responded with, “Everybody had a hard time getting back in the hang of things for sure, everybody’s conditioning was worse than before, fundamentals were off, as well as the quality of the game as a whole. I feel as if every college is suffering from this same hiatus because no school has been able to play any games all fall so it just sets back the teams and the conference all together from getting those quality game-like repetitions in to better our game.”
With practices finally resuming, and potential games on the way in the coming months, sports at Cypress College appear to be getting underway.