Spring has sprung, and students and staff alike are winding up for spring activities. For some, that might be a job or a favorite hobby, but for others, it’s their spring sport. Park has numerous spring sports all starting in the next few weeks. To make the spring sports season possible, work and passion are required.
Athletic coordinator Andrew Ewald said he spent several months arranging an indoor practice schedule so every team could start practicing for the season.
“Months ago, I worked with coaches on the indoor practice schedule so teams that are usually outside have indoor space until they’re able to get outside,” Ewald said.
Not only did the athletic director do a lot of prep for this season, so did the team captains. Senior Kate Grimm, captain of the girls lacrosse team, said the team has been preparing for the spring season since winter.
“We’ve been doing captain’s practice since November,” Grimm said. “Practice has been a lot more intense this year because we lost a lot of seniors last year and had to rebuild the team from the ground up.”
Ewald said managing facility usage, maintenance and rescheduling for every team at once poses a challenge due to space and time.
“The weather makes spring unique because you have sports that are typically outdoor sports starting, but there’s snow on the ground, so we have to make adjustments so teams can still practice,” Ewald said. “Even so, it’s still really challenging for them because it’s hard on players to play outdoor sports inside, and it’s hard on the facilities. The season is also a month shorter, which makes everything a lot tighter and more hectic.”
Senior and captain of the boys tennis team Crew Lund said focusing on communication with his fellow captains and players sets the team up for success.
“We’ve already had one captain’s practice, and the other captains and I have been coordinating to get more practices ready,” Lund said. “We have a big group chat for all the current players, former players and interested players to talk about the season and increase interest for potential players.”
Track and field coach Kelson Mackenzie said he has been finding ways to most effectively utilize staff to assist as many athletes as possible.
“We have one of the best staffs in the state, and finding ways to maximize effectiveness for everyone has been challenging,” Mackenzie said. “We have to use our staff to their fullest because we have a lot of great returners, including some state qualifiers, that we need to support. There have also been a lot of interested students who’ve signed up for track recently, which is great.”
Lund said they’re trying to focus on the little things for now and they will worry about the end goal when they reach it.
“We want to make it as far as we can so we’re going to put in our best effort in whatever we’re doing whether it’s lifting or hitting,” Lund said. “We want to take things match by match and focus on winning one point at a time then we’ll worry about sections when the time comes”.
Grimm also said they’re playing on the track field so they’re going to have to learn how to work around the track team.
“So we’re going to have to be playing on the track field so that’s also going to be different,” Grimm said. “It’s just a whole new vibe this year, we’ve been trying to adapt to the new environment and figure out a new schedule for how to work the track practice times to get our own in”.
According to Mackenzie, the track team is greatly appreciative of the new facility. He said the new track has reduced injuries, leading to greater success.
“It’s our second year out at the new track, and the new facility has been a big blessing, So thank you to all the community members who voted for that referendum to help us get that facility,” Mackenzie said. “It’s a night and day difference between what we had before. The surface is a lot softer than it was before; it used to be a very poorly maintained, hard packed grass field. The change should translate into some performance improvements, because we have fewer people getting hurt, and we have people feeling better day after day training better during practice.”
Despite the challenges, Ewald said he has enjoyed getting Park ready for the spring season to kick off.
“The spring season really keeps us on our toes, what with all the communication, stakeholders and moving parts, but despite that, I really enjoy making it the season come together,” Ewald said.
