The Daily Gamecock

Club sports leaders discuss effects of COVID-19 on their teams

Major sports aren't the only ones adjusting their seasons — students and coaches involved in club sports have also had to shift their seasons in response to the pandemic, including splitting practices and moving meets online.

Club swim team

The club swim team will not be travelling to swim meets this year and is exploring options for how the team will continue to compete. Senior co-president of the swim team Price Agnew said they are in a “preliminary process” of making meets virtual.

“I'm in talks with our college club swimming organization about the possibility of virtual meets, where teams would swim at their own pools and record their own time and submit times, and that's how the meets would go. It would be staying at your home facility and just swimming with your own teammates,” Agnew said. “I'm not sure whether or not that will actually go through, but we're working on it ... with our main organization right now.”

A main focus for Agnew and the team, he said, is “keeping member involvement.” Due to COVID-19, the swim team will have to limit the amount of swimmers that can practice per week.

“We need to make sure that we're trying to keep everyone involved and that we're carefully allowing people to come to practice,” Agnew said.

Club field hockey

Junior Sydney Pado, co-president of the club field hockey team, said the team is also in a peculiar situation.

“Things are constantly changing with the new COVID standards and whatnot. But, as of right now, we are having a season," Pado said. "It’s only going to be practices, so no games, no hosting teams, no traveling to go play games.”

Senior co-president of the club field hockey team Margot Shanahan said in a Zoom chat interview that team building is important for her team because it is “a fairly newer team thats still building so every year is really important.”

Pado said the team has relied on social media for recruiting incoming freshmen, something they haven't done much in the past.

"We’re still very excited for this season and so hopeful that it will be a great season despite all the changes," Shanahan said.

Club lacrosse

Head coach of the club lacrosse team James Harkey said his team’s season is “up in the air” as of right now. Club lacrosse doesn’t play until the spring but still practices in the fall.

“We are certainly planning for it and planning as though the spring will be, you know, back to normal," Harkey said. "We are planning for a full spring schedule as we always have."

Harkey said if the university's COVID-19 parameters remain the same going into the spring, "then we won't be able to play, and our spring season won't go off as we were planning it.”

While the club lacrosse team has to deal with the “inability to gather as we normally would,” it also has to handle current university COVID-19 guidelines that, according to Harkey, state “no non-student or non-employee are allowed to be present at practices or events” for club sports.

Harkey said it was frustrating because he was hired by the club officers to coach, but the guideline will leave the team to practice without a coach.

“I recognize that they are doing the best that they can under the circumstances, and everybody's trying to deal with something that we, as a society and a community, have never had to deal with before," Harkey said. "That being said, you know, to not have any coaches present at practice is not going to make for very productive practices.”

Harkey said he hopes some kind of "vetting process" could be introduced so that he and other hired club coaches could have the opportunity to be present at practices.

Despite this, Harkey said he is confident that his team can take on the challenge of this upcoming season and be successful. 

Club women's basketball

Senior Clare McTighe, president of the club women's basketball team, said the biggest challenge the team faces is being unable to play the sport members love.

"There are a lot of rules and guidelines that have fallen into place ... where we're not going to be able to play like we're used to," McTighe said.

Another challenge the team faces is practicing, McTighe said.

"The biggest challenge for us is trying to come up with creative ways for us to still be able to practice, whether it's like conditioning, but still follow and adhere to the COVID guidelines," McTighe said.

On the flip side, McTighe said, the easiest thing they have to adapt to is contact tracing. The team takes attendance at every practice so if one player contracts COVID-19, then they know who on the team might have been exposed to the virus.


Comments