By Mohagany Wooten
Student-athletes at Oyler School are now allowed to participate in playing volleyball for this year’s season.
For many years schools have allowed their students to participate in playing volleyball against other schools.
But due to COVID-19, the sports were held off and a lot of changes have been made.
Some changes are that “coaches have to screen all the athletes before entering the building to make sure they don’t have a fever or any other symptoms of COVID,” Sports Director Christopher O’Brien said.
The coaches must “wear masks at all times” and for safety precautions the “benches are socially distanced so that players are 6 feet away from each other unless on the playing surface.”
The district is preventing people from coming to watch the games due to COVID but the games are being recorded.
O’Brien also said, “there will be spectators at games in the near future. It will be a limited amount at this point and most likely only be members of the team’s families.”
When asked about their feelings and thoughts about the new changes for volleyball, Kalija Todd said, “I think it’s better for me to play but I also think it’s kind of boring because nobody is there to cheer us on.”
“I feel the no audience is good because I’m less nervous but bad because we don’t have anyone to cheer us on,” Andrea Holbrook, another player, said, “so I try to keep the good vibes and stay positive because sometimes we can get discouraged as a team while playing.”
Miyonna Allen said, “I think it’s OK but it would be better with an audience because I feel like we would do better if we had people to cheer us on.”
“I am in favor of all the changes and protocols this year because it’s the only way we are having any sports at this point,” O’Brien said. “We all need to adjust to these standards to ensure that the students can continue to play this year.”
The practices are usually held on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, but may differ if there is a game the week of practice.
The first game that Oyler played was against Spencer on Sept. 30, at home. The Lady Madhatters won all three rounds with the final score being 25-16.
On Oct. 1, Oyler went against Withrow at Withrow high school but they lost with the final score being 9-25.
The lady Madhatters had 4 games this past week of Oct. 19 through Oct. 23, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
And finally, some background on the sport, it is said the first official game of volleyball which was named by Professor Alfred T. Halsted, was played on July 7, 1896 at Springfield College. But the sport was invented a year before in 1895 by William G. Morgan.