Falcon athletics have been hit hard with the effects of quarantine due to the COVID-19 protocols. Teams including cheerleading, wrestling, along with boys, and girls basketball have each seen a majority, or all of their players quarantined. 

Under current regulations, sports teams practicing indoors must enter a quarantine if one positive COVID-19 case occurs among the athletes.

The need for athletes to quarantine has made teams lose significant portions of their seasons which greatly impacted the players.

  “Quarantine had a huge impact on the season because it delayed it multiple months and overall shortened the length of our season,” senior girls basketball player Faith Cabalum said. “This made it hard to stay consistent due to the on and off practicing and games throughout the first few months.”

Mentally, quarantine also took a toll on athletes, especially for the seniors who did not know how their final season would end up, as the state of the season could change at any second.

“COVID had a significant mental impact on the team, we had to shut down due to a COVID case right at the peak of our season,” Cabalum said. “Mentally it was hard to come back knowing we were behind, and dealing with the fact that at any second you could get shut down again. Knowing this it became very important to play every game like it was our last especially for the seniors.

For some athletes, they felt as if the quarantine had come at the worst possible time, because their team was just starting to find their rhythm. 

“The team spirit was really strong before we had to quarantine, even though right before quarantine we had lost our game against Adams on a buzzer beater, that was a game where everyone came together, and we really played well,” senior boys basketball player Mark Williams said. “We were really looking forward to going on a run, and potentially win the league. We were hoping to continue that momentum right into districts where we would play Utica, who is a team we can really beat.”

Although quarantined athletes are required to spend ten days away from their teammates, the players were still able to find ways to work on their sport while being separated.

“Even though the team is on quarantine right now I know a lot of us are shooting outside in our driveway,” Williams said. “We’re going on jogs, just to stay in shape so when we come back we will still be fit. We’re also watching college games, and watching film on other teams that were going to play, and also watching our own film to evaluate ourselves.”

While girls basketball fortunately was able to come back from quarantine to play their senior night game, the boys basketball team will have to miss their senior night game due to quarantine.

“It’s a little bit upsetting that we won’t be able to have our senior night or play other games that we would want to,” Williams said.

Quarantine has proved to have a significance for many RHS sports, yet athletes are still trying to stay positive through all of it.

“This season really hasn’t been what we’ve expected, but we have done a good job of staying positive, and playing hard,” Williams said.