Warmups started with simple resistance band squats with partners holding the tension taut. Each volleyball player within the weight room had visible signs of the early morning underneath their eyes. Despite the early wake up time and walking to the weight room in the early morning darkness, each player counts on one another to show up and make the right decision. Especially with the threat of COVID.
“A typical practice day, we get in there they take our temperature and then we wear masks in the locker room getting ready. You wear a mask everywhere,” explained Ashley Boer, a senior and team captain on the Morningside women’s volleyball team.
Before any Morningside athlete walks in to the weight room to complete their team lift, they are required to be screened by strength and conditioning coach Aaron Jung. Athletes in the weight room are also required to wear their mask for the entire duration of their lift.
Barbells were held in the front squat position by each athlete. Each had to complete multiple sets of five empty barbell Romanian deadlifts and front squats. Whenever their set was completed, partners stood off to the side to pinch their masks off their face for better air flow.
Ashley quickly went through her reps, placing her barbell down on the platform to scramble and move plates onto it with her lifting partner. Players knew how vital their time in the weight room, especially with the talk Coach Jung gave them. Now was the time to improve to be better for the next game.
The team traveled to Crete, Nebraska to face Doane University for the first official game, the first one they had in months. The women Mustangs made a push, going through five sets, but falling in the last one. They would return to their home court two days later to face their cross-town rival.
“There was a ton of emotion,” said Ashley with wide grin on her face, thinking back on that first game, “You’re excited but you’re since it is the first time playing since November but it was really fun because obviously if you looked at the scores, our first game was five sets. We fought that whole day and it was just nice seeing that because we haven’t actually played against a team so just seeing how we react in those situations was awesome to see again. I’m really happy.”
The road back to the court was an experiment for both player and for the coaches. Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) announced they would return back to playing sports again, with their guidelines to battle COVID. Morningside went to work on figuring out their own plan to better their athletes and still protecting them from COVID-19 exposure.
Coach Jung immediately had concerns coming into the year about how to manage his weight room during a pandemic. The first big issue Coach Jung had to face was scheduling, due to socially distancing the players within the small space. “How many sessions in a day am I going to do? I mean, football has over 160-150 kids. That’s a lot. That’s a lot of hours,” said Coach Jung.
The other issue that Coach Jung faced was how to handle programming, or the workouts, of players. Within the time athletes work out, a lot of the equipment is being touched and social distance can’t be achieved.
Summer break allowed Jung to figure out his plan to keep athletes safe: shorten lifts to allow cleaning time, masks while lifting, and pre-lifting screening.
“These kids want to have a season. With that being said, they will do everything in their power, so whether that be restricting from extracurriculars during the weekend and as much as possible,” said Coach Jung “We’re not dumb as coaches, we know what goes on in a college setting. Over half of us probably played in college, so we know what is expected. But it’s still going to happen, but you can educate them look if you want a season to happen, you want this to actually be a thing, then you help out as much as humanly possible.”
Ashley kept a good attitude with the direction and COVID guidelines that GPAC and Morningside put out. She felt lucky to still have a season since some schools had cancelled sports for the year due to COVID.
Practices for the team this year has them washing their hands after every drill and sanitizing the muscle rollers. The entire team has to be screened before practices and games as well, which get reported to NAIA.
“We’re just making sure we’re on the same page safety guideline wise and making safety decisions for ourselves,” explained Ashley “but if they’re feeling sick, they need to contact coach and tell us because then we’re obviously together every day”
Ashley and the rest of the seniors agreed that they needed to be calm and approachable for the underclassmen teammates, especially to get through this season. Along with improving communication, knowing that teammates would be making smart choices was a quality everyone on the team held to high standard.
“Accountability was one of our number one things and knowing, especially as a team captain, knowing you can count on your teammates is one of the biggest things,” said Ashley, “Accountability reflects on the court as well, it’s so important off the court on the court and in your career. Just knowing you can hold people accountable is one of the biggest factors to me. Just being able to hold people accountable is very important to me.”
Head volleyball coach Jessica Squier made it known to players to hold each other accountable and making right decisions for themselves. An example of this would be talking to a professor if they need more social distance within the classroom setting.
Making smart choices while still having fun out of practice has also required sacrifices. Trust in teammates is vital especially during these times.
“It’s hard but that’s where the accountability and trust comes in because we’re not all together at times which we get enough of that during the week but just trusting them, they’re making those right decisions,” said Ashley “It’s like just the other day we went to another team captains house and we just like sat around. It was still just us volleyball girls but just knowing the right decisions were made and where you’re actually going.”
Kiki Bennett, an RA in Dimmitt Hall, has seen the decisions what people have made with their weekend. Her overall experience has been groups of people not following rules to prevent COVID.
“It’s different with different people. Technically in any of like the lounges you’re supposed to be wearing a mask,” Explained Kiki “I’d say 80% of the people don’t, which is kind of frustrating, especially when I don’t think they realize that there are people with like underlying health conditions that do live in the dorms. They think that oh like we’re young like if we get it it’s no big deal.”
Kiki has seen within the dorms that athletes are sticking together and only hangout with each other.
“No one wants to be the reason why our team got shut down,” said Coach Jung about the heighten athlete accountability, “I think a lot of that has to deal, with not necessarily fear of, but fear they are the weakest link. They are the one that could destroy the whole thing.”
Barbells were quickly being racked after their last set. Every volleyball team member went to work spraying down everything in their area with disinfectants and wiping it down, ready for the next group to come in. The team quickly brought it in, raising their hands towards the center.
“Mustangs on three! Three! Two! One! Mustangs”
“We’re definitely going look back and be like wow what a crazy season but just overall, taking care of each other, making sure our safety is the number one thing and having fun staying communication and if we can control our controllables, we’re gonna make it far and know our goals we set for ourselves and knowing we can achieve them. I feel like we’re gonna be very far and achieve those goals,” declared the volleyball captain.
I think this is a good story, I noticed a couple little grammar errors throughout the story, but overall a good job showing off accountability in the realm of athletics.
Abby, you did really good with the visual of this story. I really loved how you added pictures to your story.
I think you chosethe perfect people to interview to get a full insight for your topic!
The only thing to make the story better is just cleaning up the quotes. Overall great story!
You did a great job gathering quotes and relating them to the story. I was particularly impressed with the quotes from Aaron Jung. He tells it as it is. Everyone has to be held accountable because these great sports programs can be shut down in an instant in the event of an outbreak. Getting Kiki as a source was a great choice. Reading a RA’s opinion, particularly one where there are in the quarantine hall provided great insight. If it’s true that 80% of our student body on campus is ignoring social distancing guidelines, that’s certainly concerning.
Abby this was a great first draft. I enjoy that you included pictures I really think it added to the story by actually giving the reader a visual of what you are talking about. People typically just think about the games when it comes to COVID and the precautions and don’t really think about the behind the scenes work that also changed to keep athletes and coaches as safe as possible. I thought the story had good structure. Like Ross said if you just cleaned up some quotes and gave a more direct and clear story it would be even better. Overall I really enjoyed reading this peice.