It’s been a year

A
 year ago last
Thursday, the Lady Dogies were one of only four teams to get to play a game at the 3A/4A State Basketball Tournament before COVID-19 shut down the
Big Dance.
A year ago last Friday, students walked out of Newcastle schools for the weekend without knowing they would not walk back in during the 2019-2020 school year.
A year ago on Monday, teachers came to work in buildings without students only to go home at the end of the day and not return to the classroom. 
Spring sports seasons were placed on hold after their first week of practice with the hope they could get back on the field or the track within a couple of weeks. 
That was not to be.
For three weeks we were in limbo, with no idea of how, if and when we would return to school and in that time; teachers and administrators had to throw together a plan to finish out the school year virtually.
Parents had to scramble to figure out care for their small children.
It was an unbelievable and surreal time for everyone, but we pieced together a plan to get our kids through the year, though it was far from a perfect scenario.
Kids had to forego their prom, and seniors had to improvise their graduation. However, the class of 2020 got their diplomas in an historic ceremony and juniors and seniors got to have their prom — it was just a little later than expected.
We here in Wyoming are exceedingly lucky in comparison with other parts of the country and the world. While we experienced a shut-down and a quarantine due to the pandemic, and we were put under restrictions in order to try to slow the spread of the virus, our lives were not impacted nearly as severely as others.
Though we didn’t do school face to face for two and a half months last spring, we were lucky enough to get to come back to school in the fall and it felt close to normal.
Fall sports got to play a season, albeit in a little different in format. 
We had a bit of an uncertain break between sports seasons as a second wave of the virus swept through the country — and really the first wave for our area — made the start of the winter sports questionable.
Newcastle High School had a shaky few days in November when we were taking it day by day to see if we’d have enough teachers and subs to stay in tier one.
But we weathered that storm to stay in the classroom and were able to get basketball, wrestling and swimming under way on time.
Again, competitions looked a little different than before but all teams got to see their seasons to fruition.
As we reached the anniversary of the day life changed, spring sports have begun and we are feeling confident they too will get to play it out through their culminating events in May. Plans are being made for prom, and graduation is set.
FBLA, FFA and Speech are able to enjoy their state events and club sports are able to get started as well.
Vaccines are rolling out for those who choose to get them, and it feels like there may be a glimpse of a light at the end of a very long tunnel. 
Maybe it’s like seeing the lights of Newcastle when you’re still 40 miles out, but that illumination at least provides us with a ray of hope.