Overcoming Adversity: What It Means to High School Athletes to Be Back at Workouts

Teams returning to the gridiron for the first time since COVID-19 restrictions were lifted has been exciting for all those involved with sports and all those longing for sports to start back up. 

For the athletes, though, who spent three months away from the game they love, their coaches and their teammates, the first week of workouts has been a homecoming.

“It feels great to be back out on the field with the boys, and it’s good to see everyone back out there. It’s good to put in work. [It’s] just a great time out there getting ready for the season,” Vandebilt Catholic High School offensive lineman Seth Trahan said. 

“It’s just great to be getting back in the swing of things, getting back in shape in the weight room. We’re all just waiting until we can start practicing again,” running back Collin Robicheaux said.

On April 6, the Louisiana High School Athletic Association (LHSAA) announced the suspension of all high school athletic activities for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. A few days later, the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux announced that it would be keeping its schools, including VCHS, closed for the remainder of the school year as well.

Thus, standard off-season workouts were put on hold, leaving young football players without their usual routine and left to continue training on their own.

“I feel like, right before quarantine hit, we were hitting big strides, bigger than we ever have in the previous offseasons leading up to the season, but now that we had that three month break, it’s really going to see who’s been putting in the work,” linebacker Collin St. Germain said.

When Louisiana entered Phase 2 of its coronavirus reopening plan, LHSAA issued a set of guidelines schools would be required to follow in order to resume athletic activities. 

Teams are only allowed to workout in groups of 25, so many schools like VCHS have grouped players and coaches into 25-person “pods” assigned to various time slots. 

Sports with more contact, like football, have been limited to workouts only with no pads.

In addition, players are required to undergo a screening process that includes a temperature check and questionnaire prior to entering practice. If they do not meet the requirements to participate, such as not registering a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher, they are asked to leave.

Weight room use is allowed, but equipment must be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized after each pod uses it. 

While such guidelines are necessary for keeping athletes, coaches and their families safe, they’ve posed challenges to the way players are able to maintain their workout routines.

“The hardest part about this kind of practicing is not being able to use the football for the offense,” wide receiver Joseph Baughman said. “You have to work on catching. The quarterback’s got to work on passing and the running back on getting the ball off.”

However, the temporary method of practice has some benefits.

“It’s helping us just do the fundamental aspect of it, really hitting on the blitz schemes, what gaps to fill. I feel like that’s a good part of this, just making sure we get our fundamentals down and really hitting on that, so when we can put on helmets and we can put on shells, it’s more crisp than it would have been in the beginning,” St. Germain said.

The Terriers are coming off of a 6-4 season, capped off with a first-round victory in the Division II playoffs over Archbishop Hannan High School before falling to University Laboratory School in the second round. 

Not wanting to lose that momentum, the players made it a point to keep up with their own workout routines at home.

“Me and my brother, a few days a week, we would get together in the morning and throw the football, run some routes, catch the ball a bit, work out a few days a week” Baughman said. 

Despite the setbacks that COVID-19 has brought, the boys are expecting the work the Terriers put in on their own and the work they’re now able to put in together to pay off. 

The Terriers’ key next season will be experience, as the boys say they have retained the majority of their offensive starters, and younger players filling the roles of key defensive players that graduated have had time to develop.

“Speaking from an offensive standpoint, we only lost two or three seniors, so we’ve got a pretty good connection on offense, so we’re looking good going with the same group of guys,” Trahan said. 

“On the defensive side of the ball, you can expect to see a lot of what you’ve seen from the last two years,” linebacker Sean Diebold said. “Just all of us flying to the football, being fundamentally sound in everything we do, but now with a more experienced defensive line from last year because they were so young. I think we’re going to be better and just keep getting better throughout the season.”