Freshmen Athletes Await The Return of Sports

By: Tyler Stark

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all fall and winter sports have been temporarily postponed. With all this uncertainty the question becomes how are these young athletes feeling right now, what are they doing without their sports?

For freshmen, this would have been their first opportunity to transition from middle school sports to high school competition.

Football player Alex Perch, ‘24,  said “I don’t know if we will have a season or not,  but I just try to remain optimistic for the season and hope we can play.”

Perch says that he misses the football season very much, and he is seriously awaiting the day that he can return to playing the game that brings him so much joy.

Football and soccer player Xaiver Perez, ‘24 has been playing on the gridiron since the age of five, so at this point, the game is basically embedded in him. 

“[The long break] it was pretty odd not playing but it has actually had a good impact on me. I have been able to strengthen my knees that were weak at the beginning of the quarantine and I have more time to workout” said Perez.

 Perez goes on to say that he believes the workouts that he is doing right now are more challenging than the actual football workouts, and he believes that when he gets back on the field all the hard work he is putting in right now will carry over.

Wrestler Kai Preisendorf, ‘24  finds himself in a similar position to Perez. Preisendorf has been Wrestling since the age of 5. For him, this long time away from the sport is really odd.             

“It’s just been really weird not being able to go to any practice or tournaments in a while and makes it tough to go out on the mat knowing you don’t know when your next match is”, said Presiendorf.

The feeling of uncertainty definitely seems to be a popular one among these athletes. For a lot of these individuals who feel lost without sports as a constant in their life. These sports mean so much to them and it’s hard for them to lose something they always looked forward to, especially this year which would have been their first chance to play at the high school level. 

Nicole Puerner, ‘24  is a three-sport athlete. She’s a cheerleader, basketball player, and softball player.

If this were any other year, Puerner would be able to play all three sports and be commended for being one of the few three-sport athletes.

However, this year with sports being postponed it is incredibly likely that she will have to drop one of them so that she can find enough time for the two others especially since the winter and spring seasons will occur at the same time this year.” 

“It would be amazing if I didn’t have to but the reality is that I am going to have to choose. I think I would have to just have to go with my strongest sport…It’s definitely hard knowing I’ll have to drop one because I love all of them and they are what keeps me busy,” said Puerner. 

Baseball player Scotty Weber, ‘24  finds himself in an extremely unique position during this time. While most athletes have been forced to stay at home and train by themselves, Weber’s travel baseball team has been holding practices on a regular basis, and they’ve even played a few games.

Weber said that at the beginning of the pandemic, he did have a two-month layoff. During this break, he did not know how it would affect him, but now he is very grateful that he is able to play and stay active. 

¨I’ve been practicing playing defense mainly and being able to make plays that will help our team succeed. I’ve always been good at hitting the ball and scoring runs, so I’m only practicing that a little bit,” said Weber.  

As of right now nobody really knows what’s going to happen as this year progresses. Will there be sports this year? If so will there be a limited amount of games? Will fans be in attendance? We will find out the answers to all of these questions soon enough. 

However, these athletes are not going to let all of this uncertainty get in their way. They are going to continue to train, continue to perfect their skills so that when the time does come for them to step back onto the field, they will be ready.

Tags: Alex Perch, Kai Preisendorf, Nicole Puerner, redwood baseball, redwood cheer, redwood football, Scotty Weber, Xaiver Perez