July 13, 2020 at 9:31 a.m.
RHS athletes get back to work
RHS athletes get back to work
The School District of Rhinelander opened its outdoor facilities last week for individual strength and conditioning training, phase one of what it hopes will be a four-phase process building toward the start of fall sports practices next month, while taking into consideration new procedures and precautions to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19.
Athletes spent little time getting to work. Coach M.J. Laggis had roughly 25 kids working, between his cross country and boys' hockey programs. RHS football coach Aaron Kraemer estimated he had more than 30 kids split between his morning and afternoon training sessions.
Attendance by athletes is completely voluntary.
All of the athletes had to adjust to a new normal, training outdoors at Mike Webster Stadium instead of indoors in the Jim Miazga Community Gymnasium and the Aspirus Fitness Center, at least for this month.
Athletes walked in one-by-one, masks on, where they were greeted by coaches who were also wearing masks. A series of health questions, screening to ensure athletes were free of any COVID symptoms, were asked before athletes could head inside the field.
Once inside, the social distancing continued. Athletes were grouped into pods of no more than 10 and spread throughout stations around the stadium complex. Speed work took place on the track, free weights were lifted on the turf and a pole building on the northwest corner of the complex became a makeshift weight room, with a series of benches inside and garage doors open to get as much ventilation as possible.
"Kids are just itching to get involved," Kraemer said. "That's exactly what I felt out there today. Kids were excited to be back, excited to be working out, excited to be back out on the field and being together. I think a lot of the connection between kids has been lost, too. I think that's part of it, just being out there and having the relationship with your teammates, regardless of the year."
Added Laggis. "I was just worried about people being negative and they weren't. The kids were great. The attitude was, 'Let's make the most out of it. At least we're doing something.'"
There was plenty for the coaches and athletes to get accustomed to on day one - from the screening questions, to use of masks whenever not actively working out, to frequent sanitizing of hands and equipment and remaining socially distant.
Naturally, given the number of new procedures and protocols in place, there was a bit of a learning curve, Laggis noted.
"It's impossible to not make mistakes," he said. In particular, Laggis saw tweaks he needs to make to make the free weight station to better adhere to the protocols.
"I don't care what anybody says. Any coach that is a coach is going to be going through this process right now," he said. "I'm already making a little checklist of things I've got to clean up out here, that I've got to do better."
Kraemer said he'd gladly take any challenge head-on, in terms of health and safety precautions, because it meant, for the first time since early March, he was able to work with some of his football and track athletes face-to-face.
"I'd say it's more difficult to hold back my emotions of joy," he said. "If this is the case, and we keep moving forward with the social distancing, it's not something I'm super excited about. I don't think anybody's super excited about being six feet apart and masking and all this stuff and going through all these precautions. It's not something I'm super excited about, but it's also something I understand."
"I think it's just making sure that we, as coaches, are diligent with the rules that we put forward, and that the school district has put forward," Kraemer added. "I think that sometimes there's a bit of a misconception that kids think they can't get it (the virus) and that they won't get it and they take the rules a little lackadaisically. As a coach, it's really important to reiterate to the kids, 'Hey listen, if we want to have a football season, we have to make sure we're following these rules.' We're the one's most heavily hit by this, the highest-impact sport and the soonest time frame (to start practice). It's important that our kids just continually listen to those rules."
So far, the emphasis has been on getting fall sports athletes some training and acclimatization ahead of the scheduled start of practice.
Football is slated to begin Aug. 4, with girls' tennis and swimming starting Aug. 11, and cross country, volleyball and boys' soccer starting Aug. 17.
As of this past Friday, football, soccer, cross country and swimming have all begun training, according to RHS activities director Brian Paulson.
While some sport-specific training can be done in Phase 1 of the district's summer athletic plan - provided it is individualized, without contact and without shared equipment - the football and cross country groups pretty much stuck to exercising and lifting weights on Wednesday.
"We're hoping to get kids back in the flow, condition and strength (train) a little bit and let's just hope we can keep moving the right direction," Laggis said. "We're all nervous about it, but let's hope we can keep going the right way."
Barring any setbacks - be it teams not following the newly-instituted policies or the spread of the virus becoming more prevalent overall in Oneida County - the district will move to Phase 2, which allows for the use of shared equipment beginning July 20. Phase 3, which allows locker rooms and the Aspirus Fitness Center inside RHS to open, is set for Aug. 3 in conjunction with the start of football practice and would allow teams to gather in groups of up to 50. Phase 4 would allow full-sided competitions and is scheduled to begin no earlier than Aug. 10.
Kraemer said getting used to the protocols now will be beneficial, assuming football practice begins as scheduled.
"That's going to be the big challenge for us during the season, making sure the equipment is sanitized, making sure our helmets are sanitized and making sure the pads that we use are sanitized," he said. "That's the big thing. Now we can just kind of focus on the weights that we're using and staying socially distant. It's a nice, easy process. I think the school district did a great job of putting that plan together where it was that slow, 'We're going to start at phase one and only do this and then we're going to move through.' I think that's good because I think it gives us a place to grow and an understanding of we're supposed to do."
Laggis said he expects the majority of fall sports teams around the area, regardless of sport, will be a little behind at the start of practice, due to the abbreviated and interrupted offseason program, but he also expects there will be plenty of enthusiasm once practice begins.
"I think that's one little silver lining. I don't think kids will come back to sports and be like, 'Oh, here we go again.' I think they'll come back and realize how special it is that they have a chance to compete, go to school on a normal school day, we hope, and those kind of things," he said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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