The Mindset of Student Athletes Preceding the Start of the Winter Sports Season

After the CIAC pushed the start of the winter sports season back to January, high school athletes have been left with almost a 2 month gap between their Spring and winter sports. Back in mid November, the CIAC announced that they would be pushing the Winter sports season to Jan. 19, 2021. The original start was set for November but was pushed back twice, until they landed on the date on the 19th. As it may be imagined, the majority of people involved in these sports have strong feelings towards what has happened so far, as well as what they expect to happen.

Marissa Perachi, a junior at Shepaug, plays for the varsity high school basketball team, shared her thoughts about the upcoming season. “I’m very excited to start playing again because it’s important to take every opportunity you get nowadays with COVID” said Perachi. Last year the state tournament for all Connecticut sports was cancelled days before basketball games for the girls and boys. Logan Pacific, a junior at Shepaug said that coming into the season he’s “hoping to have a lot of fun with my teammates, and I want to play hard and win.”

With the gap between seasons, athletes are finding their own ways to condition. “I’ll just do little workouts in my room and maybe go on runs whenever I can.” said Marissa. Logan stated “I played soccer in the fall which really helped condition me, and my gym teacher made a workout for me to keep me in shape for the season.” Only off-season conditioning is permitted until January 19th.

With everything going on the players have to expect for things to be different than what they have experienced with winter sports so far in their high school careers. “I expect to learn a lot, get better, and have a great season as a team and individually.” Marissa had different thoughts about what she expected. “I don’t have high expectations knowing that at any given moment anyone could test positive (for COVID) at any given time and we’d all have to quarantine.

These athletes also are setting their goals for what they want for their teams and themselves individually to accomplish. Marissa said that she wants “To try and stay positive throughout the whole season if we get through the tough times of COVID.” Logan on the other hand said “my goal is towin at least 10 games and my goal for the season is to average at least 14 points a game.”

With the season less than a month in reach, student athletes around the state are undoubtedly excited to see what the following season has in store for us.