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Playing a sport in the years 2020-2021 has been the weirdest experience, and I think I can speak for any sports player on this. There have been so many changes to the traditions that people have been doing for as long as they can remember. One that stood out to everyone was watching NFL or NHL games and hearing loud cheering in the back but there was absolutely no one actually sitting in the stadium. Other sports were completely postponed and there would be winter sports happening in the spring or summer. The whole world of sports was greatly affected by the pandemic including the world of softball.
When the pandemic first hit, the Avonworth Varsity team was getting ready to start our 2020 season. However, after a long time waiting, our season was completely cancelled and it broke our hearts. We never got to play our least season with the 2020 graduates on the team.
Although I didn’t get to play for the high school team that year, it was fortunate enough that the 2020 travel tournaments were still being played. I played for a majority of the summer with my travel team while traveling around the state and as far as Columbus Ohio. That was the first thing that was a little weird. Normally we would travel to Virginia Beach and Buffalo New York and other fun places, but we didn’t really go too far. I get that that was the smarter thing to do in a pandemic but it was just not as exciting as usual.
(Photos from here to below from Keyaira Cameron)
One of the most fun things to do with your team in this sport is rushing out to home plate after you or one of your teammates hits a homerun. Especially in a really serious game it gets your adrenaline pumping and you hear everyone screaming in the stands, it’s so fun. However, because of mandates and general rules, that has been a thing that mainly the Avonworth Varsity team has missed out on. There have been times when one of the girls on the team has hit a homerun in a serious game and it gets awkward because we are just jumping and screaming at her from the dugout. It sounds funny but it’s seriously kind of depressing.
The 2021 season for the varsity softball team has been great. We’ve been working so hard all season and had some big successes, like being section champs for the 3rd year in a row and making it to the State playoffs. The only thing that’s been annoying is the schedule constantly being messed with because of Covid. First of all, we didn’t get to go to Myrtle Beach this year, again. We are always looking forward to that trip. There were also a lot of games cancelled or postponed because of covid cases in other schools. It was just very annoying when we would go a whole week without playing a game and then have 3 or 4 games the next week. It was a train wreck but we made it and are still looking to do more good with this season.
