Student Athlete View on Pandemic
Student Athlete View on Pandemic
Written by: Meer Mehdi, Tianah Lowery, and Vishakh Pillai
During the pandemic, we wanted to know how student athletes cope with sports. Jordyn DuBoce, a soccer player, and a student managed to still play throughout the pandemic. Our interview today is going to be on Jordyn and how she manages soccer and school. Soccer has grown to have a scarce amount of attention, compared to back when the pandemic wasn't around. A few Q&A’s will be provided as well as other facts about how Jordyn is reacting to having to play and learn during the pandemic.
Everyone knows how difficult it has been during the pandemic, but we think something that has really changed, is probably sports and school. We were wondering “What are the precautions the coaches and the athletes have to take?” Jordyn DuBoce who plays soccer told us that every player needs to wear a mask before and after practice but not during. However the coaches have to wear his/her mask at all times. After using equipment, the players have to sanitize it to make sure it's safe and germ-free for the next person to use.
Learning that information, we now know how much more difficult and challenging it is to play any sport during this time. An important question we wanted to ask was “Is their practice online or are they face to face with her whole team; If they were face to face, is there any physical contact?” Jordyn D. explained to us that in the beginning of quarantine, her practices were on zoom which she felt were very difficult. Jordyn found it difficult because she felt that on zoom, the coaches are mostly focused on showing the exercise or drill they are doing. But while face to face, the coaches can critique each player individually. Since early August, Jordyn has been able to have practices face to face.
School has also severely impacted Jordyn in numerous ways. Online schooling is difficult for Jordyn to deal with because of the amount of distractions she has to face. Not only during school, but in her soccer practice as well. In online school she isn’t able to learn as much as she did before the pandemic came. Since everything was closed and necessities were out of reach, school is no longer how it used to be. Soccer is the same as well. She had a hard time focusing and on top of that, her mentors explained less on what and how they had to do things. Under these circumstances, teachers now have different teaching methods which Jordyn finds perplexing.
In regular (non-pandemic) soccer, Jordyn had to follow a small set of precautions to keep herself and others out of harm's way. How do the precautions work during the pandemic? During the pandemic, it is a bigger set of guidelines because of Covid. Jordyn believes it is just like the real world; 6 feet apart and a mask at all times. Both players and coaches need to do this to prevent any transmission of the virus. She also told us if you touch the equipment that the coaches provide for public use, you MUST sanitize it to make it wearable for the next player to potentially use. And once again, no physical contact is allowed AT ALL.
When the pandemic first made its release in March, Jordyn’s peers, coaches, and almost everyone were struggling to get a grip of the situation. Though, as time went by, Jordyn and her fellow classmates and teammates started to adapt to the situation, knowing that this would go on for an extended period of time. By this time, Jordyn’s practice is basically the same as before the pandemic came through; the only main differences are that there is no physical contact and you must stay 6 feet apart. Other than that, everything else is almost the same besides some minor safety measures (sanitizing, gear, etc.). Jordyn is relieved to know that her soccer practice is back in “regular” session, and so are we!
