FOWLER HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS MAKE A WELCOME RETURN

For well over a year, all sporting events at the high school level and lower have been halted. The novel coronavirus put an immediate stop to most interactive activities including sports until COVID case numbers decreased to a level that was deemed safe in Fresno County. Now sports are back for the Redcats of Fowler High.

Joe Hammond, the Fowler High athletic director, is working to put all of the offered sports schedules together.

“We have roughly 12 or 13 sports going on right now so scheduling sports or each sport during the week is tough,” Hammond said.

With the school district giving the all-clear in late March, many teams were on a shorter schedule while others squeezed a full season into only three months. Fowler High’s varsity boys’ baseball team is doing the whole thing in three months.

“I’m really excited because especially last year I tore my ACL. That’s what is really special about it is finally being able to play after a while,” said Garrett Geringer, who is on the varsity baseball team. He said he is OK with having a crammed schedule to make up for last year’s canceled season.

The team shares the same excitement at being able to play their season even though the schedule is packed with multiple games a week.

COVID is still a threat in the U.S and especially in smaller towns such as Fowler. That is why there are still protocols in place.

Safety measures including mask-wearing and temperature checks for the athletes are commonplace. The traditional shaking of the opposing team’s hands has been replaced with an end-of-the-game hat salute to limit close contact. Spectator attendance is limited to just immediate family. There lies a strong balance of trust between the competing teams that both are following safety protocols to have no COVID transmissions to ensure the 2021 season will continue.

“In the end, it’s challenging for everybody, but the outcome of just being able to play sports and give these kids time on the field, time on the court has been so beneficial for them, so emotionally it has been really good,” Hammond says.

He is hopeful that by next semester they will further increase the number of fans at their sporting events all in the hopes of returning back to a form of normality.