Since school reopened, some students are concerned if community sports will begin, and if they should participate, considering the COVID-19 pandemic.

Currently, only a few community sports have their season running, making the options selective. High school volleyball, flag football, and soccer have started their seasons, but they have started almost a month late. The Florida High School Athletic Association Board of Directors voted in July in favor of postponing the start date of fall sports until August 24th.

“Due to COVID-19 the volleyball teams’ season was kind of cut short, like I’m very thankful that we could even have a season but at the same time there wasn’t a lot of games, compared to how many last year’s team had since the season usually starts early August, but this year it started in late September,” sophomore Jennalise Montanez says. “But the growth was good for me, like I can say that I got better at the sport, I still know that I would’ve gotten so much better if the season wasn’t delayed a whole month. Our team still managed to have fun and play hard. Even though the junior varsity team already ended our season, I still go and support the varsity team at their practices and the rest of their games.”

Team members have begun training, and some have even played competitive games against rival schools. However, because of COVID-19, many parents are prohibiting their students from participating in school sports.

“Flag football is an amazing sport; it is allowing players who aren’t built enough to still be able to play a rough sport. The sport educates and helps students and other athletes at a safer range. Due to COVID- 19, flag football has given hope to many players since it’s a no hand sport,” junior Joey Luis says. “Flag football has encouraged me and others by spending our time doing things we like at a distance, and still managing to stay safe. This is also important to my parents because they don’t want me and my brother to be at risk of catching COVID-19 just because we are participating in a sport.”

While most sports in school have been given the opportunity to start up again, there are still other sports that unfortunately aren’t going to have a season this year. For example, the cheerleading team’s season has been cancelled due to the controversy of it being safe or not.

“I’m sad that cheer was canceled this year, it was an activity that motivated me to do better and I looked forward to going to practice every day. I made good friendships and learned a lot. It taught me how to work with other and how to work through pain. It was honestly the best part of my day,” junior Paola Ortega says.

As for basketball, it is more controversial, because a few members have contracted COVID-19. Therefore, conditioning and early preparation parts of this year’s basketball season have been delayed by a few weeks, so that everyone can be safe and at good state of health.

“I honestly don’t think that basketball or any sports should be cancelled due to the recent cases of COVID-19 in school, especially because I’m looking forward to playing this season, but I do think that everyone just needs to be more careful and cautious,” junior, Ryan Dwyer says. “When it comes to the new rules for playing basketball in school and following them, I don’t really mind them because it’s pretty much the same thing as before except when it comes to having to wash and sanitize your hands every 5 seconds.”

Even though COVID-19 has been the reason for the sports this school year being delayed and, in a way, more complicated, students are still working hard and figuring out how to adjust to the new rules and regulations when it comes to contributing to the available sports, while managing to stay safe and still having an overall good time.

“I feel as if student athletes shouldn’t have any restrictions when it comes to when we play or how much access we have to practice or to play. We all understand the seriousness of COVID-19 and because of that I’m pretty sure that athletes are still going to work hard and push themselves, but they will make sure to keep themselves safe at the same time,” sophomore Julian Crespo says.