Emma Gonosey
Executive Sports Editor
With COVID-19 cases spiking, Costa sports teams have made sudden changes to the way they practice and play going into the new seasons. Indoor sports especially have had to increase their distance and be more strict with their mask-wearing.
“In order to accommodate for the COVID-19 pandemic, the dance team now tests Mondays and Wednesdays,” dance captain Chloe Reinholtz said. “We also are required to wear our masks while we dance indoors and maintain the new COVID protocols sports accomodate to current COVID-19 status recently put into place.”
Besides an increase in testing, the team has also gotten much stricter about positive cases. Because they test twice a week, it has been easier to protect the dancers from testing positive. If more than three girls on the team test positive, the team gets suspended.
“If three [or more] dancers or more have COVID, then our team will be suspended for a total of seven days,” Reinholtz said. “We still talk, and if there are members that are also on the competition team they have the ability to Zoom from home.”
In addition to the dance team, the girls varsity basketball team has made many adjustments in order to keep players and coaches safe and healthy. Similarly to the dance team, players get tested twice a week.
“Since basketball is an indoor sport, we have to get tested twice a week, Monday and Wednesday,” junior and varsity player Heather Roth said. “We’re also supposed to wear our masks indoors at all times, except when doing super strenuous activities (like sprints/scrim-mages).”
Games have also had to be adjusted to combat the spike in COVID-19. Many games have either been canceled or postponed, and there is a set list of spectators allowed to attend in order to limit how many people are in the same room.
“Since Omicron’s surge, we haven’t had many games because so many teams have COVID-19,” Roth said. “For the one game we’ve had [so far], we were required to test before the game and keep our masks on at all times, even when playing, but when you’re playing you can wear it on your chin. Now everyone is required to send a list of up to four spectators approved to watch the game. Basically, they’re limiting who can come to the games now, and it’s mostly just family members.”
In addition to indoor sports, outdoor sports and activities have taken COVID-19 precautions more seriously and have adopted new protocols even while practicing outside. Similarly to the dance team, the girls soccer team suspends practicing for a week when players have COVID-19.
“We are now testing once a week and are also shut down for a week to control the COVID cases,” sophomore soccer player Anna Sampson said. “There were too many COVID cases [on the team], so to stop the rise we shut down.”
Besides practices, the soccer team has had to adjust its game schedule. Because of a rise in cases, the team stopped meeting for a week, pushing back its games. They are also playing opposing teams less than they would in a normal season.
“We try our best to wear masks when we are doing close contact drills and talking,” Sampson said. “We are also playing each team once instead of twice.”
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