COVID-19 has done what no opponent can: knock off Staples High School spring sports teams.
Coaches are providing workouts, and staying in touch via video conferences. Athletes are training on their own. Competitions, however, are on hold — perhaps all the way through the end of the season.
Yet one team still sails along.
Literally.
Staples’ sailing squad is special in many ways. It’s coed, for one thing. Members have experience in everything from 10-foot dinghies to 50-foot sailboats. But they are from different ages, they race in the summer for different clubs, and they’re in a variety of friend groups. Working together in tight quarters, they become a close-knit bunch.
The 2019 Staples High School sailing team.
The 20 sailors meet at Cedar Point Yacht Club. They typically spend 15 hours a week practicing and racing. The vibe is “competitive yet chill,” says senior co-captain Emerson Anvari.
The team — with a bunch of talented juniors — was looking forward to this season. Then the coronavirus raced in.
Emerson Anvari
Still, Anvari says, “we keep our sailing brains switched on.”
That’s because coach AJ Sorenson has found intriguing out-of-the-water experiences for his sailors. The most exciting is Virtual Regatta. An online game, it simulates an actual race as much as possible (without of course real wind, sea spray and booms that can knock you into the water.
The physical engagement — the full-body workout of trying to hike and flatten the boat — is missing. Sitting home with a laptop is “serene,” Anvari admits.
But the 2 competing teams join the same group chat program to simulate the often hectic nature of a race course, when many voices call out across the water. And it sure is fun. Take a look:
Last week, Anvari says, “I found myself really getting into it, getting tingly and excited the way I do when I compete.”
Then his sister called him to dinner, and he realized he was just lying in bed playing a computer game.
Still, Anvari and co-captain Nora Dockter have received great feedback from the rest of the team. They all enjoy the break from their daily routines.
Staples has “sailed” against Greenwich High already. They’re connecting with schools in places they never could compete against in real life — like Annapolis, Maryland — for future regattas.
Cecilia Adams and Emerson Anvari, last year.
Sailing is not the only Staples team using online resources. The girls golf team “practices” at 4 p.m. every day on Facebook. Head coach Patty Kondub — who is also a certified fitness trainer — leads golf-specific workouts Mondays and Wednesdays.
On Tuesdays they focus on skills like putting and chipping, through YouTube and other videos. The girls then post their own videos, and get feedback from coaches.
Thursdays are dedicated to other aspects of the game like rules, nutrition, and mental concentration.
Kondub is even making plans for Senior Day, and and a post-season “banquet.”
It’s not the same as Longshore. But — as the Staples sailing team knows — “any port in a storm.”
The Staples girls golf team.
Thank you, Dan. I must commend the girls golf team for doing their best to continue athletics as part of their high school experience and their parents for the support of their daughters. I’d also like to use this moment to publicly thank The Board of Education for approving the coaches’ stipends.
Patty, the girls golf coach, has been amazing at getting the girls together during social distancing and bringing them together as a team. It’s been really amazing to witness her commitment and dedication to the girls and the sport.
DAN – CAN’T SAY ENOUGH ABOUT PATTY – HER DEVOTION TO THE GIRLS TEAM AND TO GOLF IN GENERAL AS WELL HER ATHLETICISM . . .SWIM COACH AT THE “Y”, CURRENTLY RUNNING A FITNESS EXERCISE CLASS AT NOON ON YOUR CELL PHONES, ETC. SHE’S A CLASS ACT AND A DELIGHTFUL FUN PERSON. CHEERS PATTY FROM CB