By: Gabe Kamins, Co-Editor-in-Chief<\/p>\n
For the past few months, student athletes, like much of the world, have been left in the dark.\u00a0 Training, but uncertain if there would even be a season.\u00a0 Searching for answers, but unable to find any.\u00a0 For seniors, the haunting possibility that they may have played in their final game loomed large.\u00a0 All of this changed when Howard County announced that they would be opening up sports leagues and clinics for student athletes, giving them a chance to play the sports they love with their teammates.\u00a0 From students just looking for a way to stay active with their hobby, to quarterbacks desperately trying to build the offseason chemistry with their teammates that is so crucial to success, everyone was satisfied with the news.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Senior Danny Disman loves soccer.\u00a0 Although he doesn\u2019t play for the school, Danny has been playing soccer for about four years, three of which have been spent with the popular rec league known as SAC (Soccer Association of Columbia).\u00a0 But it was looking more and more like soccer wouldn\u2019t be available for kids in Maryland any time soon, with COVID-19 cases continuing to rise.\u00a0 Then, the announcement came.\u00a0 \u201cAt first, I was surprised because schools hadn\u2019t even opened up, and I figured that soccer wouldn\u2019t be prioritized by the state,\u201d said Danny of the news that SAC would be resuming play.\u00a0 \u201cBut I later became more excited because after a whole year, one of my favorite activities was finally back.\u201d\u00a0 Danny had been trying to practice as much as possible, though he admitted it was \u201chard to stay involved\u201d with the sport due to \u201ca lot of facilities being closed.\u201d\u00a0 Danny, like many other athletes, was going to the field at River Hill in order to practice his game.\u00a0 The field, which was closed to visitors shortly after schools closed down before opening back up in April, was home to plenty of students during quarantine.\u00a0 The turf contained football, lacrosse, and soccer players trying to perfect their craft.\u00a0 The track was where members of the cross country and track teams worked on their speed and stamina.\u00a0 And the famous hill behind the goal post served as a way for all athletes to bolster their conditioning.\u00a0 Yet there was still a pandemic going on, and no River Hill athlete knew when they would be back to playing on their teams.\u00a0 Thus, the news that SAC was starting back up was music to many\u2019s ears.\u00a0 Some still had doubts, though, and reasonably so.\u00a0 Was it really safe to be sending kids back to sports as cases in the country continue to rise?\u00a0 \u201cThey are requiring masks for all coaches and spectators, as well as the athletes during practice and warmups,\u201d explained Danny, who was admittedly skeptical at first.\u00a0 \u201cI think they are doing a good job with all the rules, but I believe they could be enforced a little better,\u201d he added.\u00a0 \u201cFor example, maybe more precautions such as temperature or symptom checkers.\u201d\u00a0 The current precautions seem to be working just fine for now, and soccer players like Danny Disman are ecstatic to be back on the field.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n There were a lot of question marks heading into the offseason for River Hill Football.\u00a0 Replacing hard-hitting Beau Brade, speedster Anthony Behrmann, and quarterback Keegan Remick would be no easy feat.\u00a0 Little did the Hawks know, however, that this would be the least of their concerns during the summer.\u00a0 COVID-19 meant no practices, no lifting and conditioning sessions, and no film time for the team.\u00a0 This was especially challenging for senior quarterback Dylan Burnett, who is looking to take over a Hawks offense that averaged 31.1 points per game last fall.\u00a0 A quarterback needs plenty of practice time to get adjusted to the playbook, as well as understand the strengths and weaknesses of his teammates.\u00a0 Dylan, who was the JV quarterback as a sophomore, knew he couldn\u2019t take any days off during quarantine if he wanted to help lead the team when football resumed.\u00a0 \u201cI was working out at my house, trying to stay fit in the weight room,\u201d he explained, referring to the gym he installed at home.\u00a0 Dylan could be commonly found at the school field, throwing passes to teammates.\u00a0 But this was not the summer Dylan, nor any of his teammates, imagined.\u00a0 Thankfully, when Howard County Recreation & Parks decided to open up a twice-a-week clinic for high school football players, it provided at least some sense of normalcy.\u00a0 \u201cI was excited to get back on the field and see where we were as a team\u201d said Dylan.\u00a0 He explained that the clinic gives the team a chance to \u201ccreate a connection between us on the field\u201d.\u00a0 The clinic, which uses the first hour to practice positional drills and the second hour for 7-on-7 competition, pits teams from around the county against each other in order to help replicate the Friday night competition that is sorely missed.\u00a0 As for how the clinic is handling the virus, Dylan explained that \u201cthey\u2019re making us wear masks and stay 6 feet apart when possible.\u201d\u00a0 Though this isn\u2019t the football anyone expected, it\u2019s a sign that the Hawks may be able to hit the gridiron sooner rather than later.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Recently, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan and State Superintendent of Schools Karen Salmon announced that high school sports in Maryland may begin practicing on 7 October, with the first competitions taking place on 27 October. This news sent student athletes into a joyous frenzy, as they began counting down the days.\u00a0 This frenzy would be short-lived, however, as just a few hours later, the Public School Superintendents’ Association of Maryland (PSSAM) announced that they are focused on getting students back to school, and that when that happens, so too will they return to the field.\u00a0 Currently, students in Howard County aren\u2019t set to return to school until the second semester, so it could still be a while until they are able to play for their high school teams.\u00a0 That being said, the situation is very fluid, as evident by the wild turn of events in the past few days.\u00a0 Athletes are still itching to get back to playing the games they love with their teammates.\u00a0 For now, though, at least they have the leagues and clinics.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Gabe Kamins, Co-Editor-in-Chief For the past few months, student athletes, like much of the world, have been left in the dark.\u00a0 Training, but uncertain if there would even be a season.\u00a0 Searching for answers, but unable to find any.\u00a0 For seniors, the haunting possibility that they may have played in their final game loomed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/13742913825_ce934899de_k0-4e5206855056b3a_4e520b7a-5056-b3a8-49d64193c3b58f8e.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1235"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1254,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions\/1254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}