Since I started back to work in mid-August, things have been going a mile a minute and there's barely been time to slow down and breathe.
Now that the high school season is slowly drawing to a close, time has become more readily available and it was time to look back on what has been the strangest season of high school sports I have ever been a part of.
If you had asked me, while I was making hundreds of donuts a day back in mid-June, if there would even be a high school season this fall, I would've told you that I was not optimistic. I also would have said that they may start a season but there's no way it's reaching the playoffs. Thankfully, I was wrong on both counts.
Practices started in early September and the first official games of the fall season started shortly after that. The schedule was regionalized, meaning there were very few games on my schedule that did not involve two teams that I cover. Of course, there were 10 schools added to my coverage area to start this year, so in addition to the five that I had covered the last number of years, there was more on my plate.
The sad part about that is that there were teams I never got to see this season. The Inter-Lakes volleyball team, the Moultonborough boys' soccer team and volleyball team and the Lisbon girls' soccer team all fell victim to a tough schedule. Inter-Lakes called off their season early, which eliminated the chance I had circled on my calendar to see three of the teams on that list. The Lisbon soccer boys, Kingswood and Newfound football and Moultonborough cross country teams I didn't see until the playoffs (or the play-in games).
And things were different. Limited amounts of fans were allowed to view the contests, there were checklists at the doors of indoor venues (and in some cases, outdoor venues as well). Each school had its own way of keeping its students safe. It wasn't fun wearing a mask while covering any of the events this fall, but it was better than the other option of not seeing any sports. It's easy enough to put a mask on for a few hours if that is what the school asks.
Perhaps the most unusual site this fall was this past weekend at the cross country championships at Derryfield Park in Manchester. Traditionally, all divisions run fairly close together and the schools are all bunched around the park. This year, to promote social distancing, the race times were separated more, each division's schools had to vacate the park as soon as the race was over to allow the next division in. And no spectators were allowed. Having attended more than 15 of these championships, it was weird looking out over the park from my traditional photo spot and not seeing hundreds of kids and spectators. However, it did make keeping my photo spot easier, since nobody was getting in the way.
There have been a few hiccups in the road, with most of the schools in my coverage area losing a game or two to COVID concerns. Inter-Lakes stopped their season early and Berlin missed out on the field hockey championships and cross country championships thanks to a COVID uptick in the community. But all in all, the season was completed without too many issues.
There have been a number of successes to date and there's still 11 teams left playing as of this writing (Gilford and Newfound volleyball, Belmont, Moultonborough and Littleton girls' soccer, Littleton, Profile and Gilford boys' soccer and Kennett, Plymouth and Winnisquam football).
Here's hoping the rest of the season goes as well as it can and we can bring a healthy conclusion to the fall sports season instead of the rough ending last winter season saw.
The Kennett field hockey team's Division II championship is one highlight in this unusual fall sports season.
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