By: Krissy Hetherington
After school was temporarily closed back in early March, many Redwood student-athletes clung to the hope that they would get to finish out their highly anticipated spring sport season. And as hope began to fade more and more each day, many hearts hung heavy the afternoon of April 3rd.
California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) released an official press release in regards to the future of the 2020 spring sports season.
“Based on the recent statements issued by Governor Newsom and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, regarding schools turning to distance learning for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year, the [CIF] does not see an avenue for the spring sports season to continue,” said CIF in the recent update.
Anxious Juniors uncertain about future
Many juniors depend on their next-to-last season to get solid times and experience to show potential college recruiters. Although this cancellation is affecting athletes across the nation who want to compete at the next level, it still leaves a lot of questions and uncertainty in the air.
Three-sport athlete, Christian Roldan, ’21, only got a few weeks to prepare for track season, “I felt like I was finally getting into my groove before I heard the news…I had high expectations for myself and had important goals I was going to hit in order to put me in the best position for running in college since junior year is typically most athlete’s best year in all sports. But I just praise God that I still have one more and trust in his timing.”
Some goals he had for the season were qualifying for the State meet in the Open 400 and 4×400 relay by running a 48 second time.
Every season, one goal shared by most Redwood track athletes is to qualify to run at big meets in California such as the Arcadia Invitational and Mt. Sac Relays, which have been canceled for the remainder of the school year. Roldan said he’s especially going to miss those meets, which host hundreds of different schools across the nation, and their “incomparable competition and atmosphere.”
Another runner, Lionel Inhphom, ’21, said “I was looking forward to this season because junior year is so important for colleges to start looking at you…I believe our 4×400 relay team this year would have been the best relay team Redwood has ever seen and we could’ve broken the school record but unfortunately we’ll never know now that the season has came to an end.”
Inhphom and Roldan have continued to workout and run as much as possible even during this quarantine.
“What motivates me to still stay in shape are the long term goals I have set for myself, for next track season, and for cross country in the fall,” added Inhphom.
Roldan alternates between sprint workouts, where he’s turned his neighborhood into a track by marking off each 100m, and running hills on other days.
“I’m mainly self motivated as I know this is part of God’s plan in the end. I try to remain in contact with coaches for colleges so that they know I’m still working out and when they need someone to watch next year, they’ll be looking for my name,” he said.
Lee Trevino, ’21, had big goals for this baseball season as well, including being a leader on the team, making WYL first team, and potentially being noticed for college. What he misses most of all though is the “friendship and brotherhood of the team.“
Three year varsity veteran Sydnee Weber, ’21, was a part of the 2018 DII Central Section Championship Softball team. She was just announced as a team captain on Friday, March 13th and the suspension of the season didn’t hit her until the cancellation of Monday’s practice.
“A few goals that I set for myself were to work on getting my hands fast and get my fundamentals as perfect as I could, plus fundamentally get my swing as sound as I could,” she said. “Which is super important before camp season where you have to be at the top of your game.”
Weber continues to stay in shape by hitting in her garage everyday and practicing fielding when she can. She works on her fundamentals through lessons her trainer continues to send her.
“I’m just looking forward to Premier Girls Fastpitch which is a tournament I have competed in for 6 years, hopefully the travel ball season, and of course senior season next year. I just want to play with best friends before we all part ways.”
Changes Also Affect Underclassmen’s Futures
Of course, all athletes are being affected by the abrupt and unexpected end of the season across all levels. This would have been the first opportunity for many sophomores and freshmen to compete at the Varsity level after working hard to earn a spot.
“I was just glad for the opportunity. One of the biggest things I was looking forward to was probably getting able to play at Rawhide Stadium because a lot of people come to those games.” said baseball player, Daryl Tillman, ’23. A focus he had was “to have one of the highest on base percentages on the team, get better every single day and just get a closer connection with my teammates.”
He continues to hit in his cages at home on the daily and occasionally gets live batting practice on the fields with help from his dad.
“I’m always motivated to workout which I believe kinda separates me from other players, overall I’m always willing to put in the extra work to become an outstanding player,” said Tillman.
After a very successful season on the Varsity Cross Country team, Jaden Hydash, ’23, was looking forward to breaking 5:40 in the mile this track season.
“I was just really looking forward to all the chances to compete. You work so hard everyday at practice so that when you get to race, you can show everyone what you’re made of. I also just really enjoy being with the team so I’m really sad our season got cut short.”
During this time she continues to run, stay healthy, and focus on being conditioned for the upcoming cross country season.
This year, the Girls Swim team was looking to secure their 10th consecutive WYL Championship. Three standout underclassmen, Sarah Plummer, ’22, Finlee Morgan, ’22, and Madison Allan, ’22, were looking forward to their second year on Varsity.
Plummer set out to medal this year in her individual WYL events and place in top 16 at Valley for the 100m fly.
“I think that being on Varsity definitely makes it harder to see the season go, since we had many invitationals and very important meets ahead of us. While I think we’re definitely missing out on such an amazing experience…I feel like we got kind of lucky in the sense that we have had opportunities on varsity and we know that we will have more to come. Although I’m so bummed for all of the amazing seniors on our team. Our senior girls this year were so talented and just all around amazing people and it breaks my heart that they won’t get to have this final season,” said Plummer.
Sarah Plummer, ’22, races in the 100m fly at the Garces Dual Meet in early February
Morgan’s aim was to drop her 500 freestyle time and place at WYL this season, “while it was disappointing that this season was cut short, we have two more years to make the most of this amazing program. I wish I could say the same for our seniors but we’ll be working harder than ever next year to make up for our lost time.”
Allan along with the rest of Varsity have been practicing 6 times a week since November and said she was already showing much improvement in the pre-season meets.
Initially she felt complete shock and denial, “Our team was holding out hope that we would at least get the end of our season, so when it became obvious that wasn’t going to happen I was very sad especially for our seniors.”
“It feels like a part of me is empty by not having practice or getting to go to meets with my friends.”