With COVID19 continuously spreading around the United States and the world, many sports at all levels are having to pause or take extra precautions to ensure the safety of the coaches and players. Here at Lakes, we have three sports underway right now in the fall season: being boys’ and girls’ golf, boys’ and girls’ cross country, and girls’ tennis. The rest of the fall sports have been moved to either the spring or summer season. In an interview, the coaches of these sports told me about the procedures they are taking to ensure that everyone can play and enjoy the sport safely.

The coach of girls’ Tennis Mr. Plinske is taking many steps this year to guarantee the safety of his athletes. They have hand sanitizer attached to the tennis ball carts and spray every tennis ball with disinfectant after every practice. Players are also always required to wear a mask when not striking a ball and they are doing this while being six feet apart. These are just some of the safety measures that they are taking.

In an interview with Mr. Shepard, the girls’ cross country coach, about his plans to keep the team safe, he said the team does daily temperature checks before practice begins, and also states that “masks must be worn at all times when athletes aren’t participating in physical activity (running).”

Even though the corona virus is still a risk to students, Lakes is still creating ways to make sure our athletes can play the sports they love while staying safe at the same time.