NHS fall sports set to begin

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
The void that was left when high school sports were cancelled last spring is about to be filled. The Coronavirus has wreaked havoc on pretty much every aspect of life in the last five months, and as the summer has progressed, big questions regarding what the fall would bring as far as school and sports have lingered over many people’s heads.
The Weston County School District #1 has made the determination to begin the 2020-2021 school year face-to-face with students in the classroom, and at the 11th hour, the Wyoming High School Activities Association (WHSAA) announced last week they were giving the green light for schools to begin the fall sports seasons as scheduled.
As such, the Dogies will get started with preseason practice in less than two weeks. The football boys will be working hard at getting in shape, the volleyball girls will be working on their ball handling skills, the cross country team will be seen riding their bikes to the canyon as they prepare for their first meet, and the ladies will be diving into the pool.
While the coaches for each sport at NHS have expressed relief and excitement that their seasons are a go, there are still some questions regarding what those seasons will look like as contests get underway.
“It’s definitely going to look a little different, but let’s see what happens”, head football coach Matt Conzelman exclaimed. “It’s very exciting now that the state has given us a go.”
The WHSAA board has had a busy few weeks as they hammered out the details of how to progress into the fall sports contests while abiding by health regulations and social distancing and cleanliness protocols.
“For us, it’s been a little easier due to the nature of the sport,” cross country head coach Kathy Beehler began. “There’s not much of anything for physical contact and it’s outside so there may be a little less opportunity for transmission. It was great to finally get the green light from WHSAA.”
Some changes that will take place for football this year include sanitizing the ball throughout the game, players will need to mask up and social distance when not in play, the pregame conference is limited to officials and one team representative and there are to be no handshakes before or after the contest. 
“We’re taking precautions and working through some new procedures, probably a little bit over what the state is mandating,” Conzelman explained. “We’re going to try to get everyone in gloves because we think that might be a little easier to sanitize, and we’re also looking at face shields to cover the lower part of the face masks. We’ll also have gators that they can pull up over their faces when they aren’t playing.”
For cross country, the WHSAA is limiting meets to four teams if schools are large, or maybe a few more if the meet is made up of small schools. The contests will also have staggered starts and finishes to limit the number of athletes in one area at once, and they will also forgo handshakes between individuals. For Newcastle, that does present some challenges as many of their meets take place in South Dakota which does not have those limitations in place.
“We could do virtual meets where we put our times up against people,” Beehler suggested. “You are always racing yourself and the clock so we’re in a little better situation than other team sports.”
In the works right now is the possibility that Newcastle will host a couple of home meets this year when it usually just hosts the first of the year at Mallo. In order to make up for some of the lost South Dakota contests, the golf course has offered their venue in order to give the athletes the opportunity to compete.
“The golf course has been so supportive and has generously offered to allow us to host meets. The board understands that this is a difficult time and they are doing everything they can to help us be successful,” Beehler beamed. “Our town has always been really good about pulling together to help each other out and I am so thankful that we have the community members that will go above and beyond to do whatever they can to help. It really warms my heart that when things get overwhelming, people just want to help.” 
Volleyball and girls swimming will also be seeing some changes to the status quo as they get ready to begin their seasons. 
A few of the requirements that will be of consequence for swimmers will be that warmups will likely be extended to allow for one swimmer per lane, relay teams must social distance between legs of the relay, and lane assignments will be given based on teams rather than times. Home teams will swim in lanes 1-3 and visitors in lanes 4-6, and no hand shakes between teams. 
Keeley Anderson is taking over as head coach of the Lady Dogies after former head coach Jenny Willard relocated from Newcastle, and in her first year will be facing a new frontier in volleyball. 
Like other sports, there will be some changes this season which include teams not switching sides throughout the contest and there will be no pre contest meeting with a coin toss. In lieu of that, the visiting team will get first serve and then the serve will alternate as per usual. If it comes to a deciding set, officials and one team captain will meet at center court and will maintain social distancing protocol, and no pregame or postgame handshakes are allowed. 
“I’m glad we get to have the season, because I know the girls were worried,” Anderson admitted. “We’re going to have some different things this year, but just having a season is exciting. All the other stuff is just what we have to do to get to play.”
Like cross country, scheduling is a little up in the air for the netters as the big tournaments will not be held this year. The Lady Dogies typically attend tournaments the first three weeks of the season, but since those are no longer an option, Anderson is hoping to see some duals scheduled to give her team the chance to compete.
On Tuesday, NHS activities director Mike Gregory attended a scheduling meeting in Casper and stated that he would have revised schedules ready by the beginning of next week.
Though there remains quite a bit that is unknown, and everyone is aware that situations may change quickly as the year progresses, all involved are excited to get to work on Aug. 17.