Girls volleyball players discuss season postponement
In the beginning of 2018, the district posted a survey circulated the school about a new sport being brought to Hammonton High School.
By the end of 2018, volleyball had the most votes and it was decided for the girls to play in the fall and the boys will play in the spring of the upcoming school year.
The 2019- 2020 school the girls volleyball had their first ever season and had an upsetting record of 3-14. However, but only was their first season and they had next year to have a great comeback season.
Then COVID hit.
When COVID-19 shut all schools and sports down in March 2020, all spring sports were cancelled and effecting fall 2020-2021 seasons any indoor sport was pushed back because of CDC laws. All outdoor sports such as football, field hockey, girls and boys soccer, and cross country; however, volleyball was an inside sport and was over capacity so it was being pushed back until the laws got lifted/changed.
The season got pushed back into this spring, and there are positive and negatives of the season changing times.
Junior Julia DiMeglio believes the negatives of COVID are it’s a shorter season and not a lot of girls can try out because track and softball are at that same time of year; however the positives would be it won’t be as hot in the school as it would be in the summer.
For junior Brandi Heinz, the postponement of the season has its pros and cons.
“We didn’t have practice over the summer and it’ll be safer than the fall,” she said. “Also, we don’t have to learn how to balance a new grade and workload with sports we’ve had time to adjust to since it is later in the year.”
“However, the downside is club volleyball is in the spring so it will be difficult to balance both. Boys volleyball is around the same time so it may be unorganized because it has been pushed back so many times. The date is still undetermined because it’s always being changed,” she added.
Junior Eve Sheehan acknowledges that postponing has provided more time for training and safety measures.
“Some positives are there were times over winter to practice before the season, and I think with the vaccine out it will help lower the positive case numbers,” said junior Eve Sheehan. “A negative is that the season is shorter.”
There are many possibilities of the season not happening depending on how everything in the future falls into place. The girls are anxious to get their season started because they’ve been waiting so long for it to start.
