Bear River athletes are ready to jump back into the normal swing of sports practices and games, but to abide by the necessary health guidelines, most sports teams have resorted to different methods of preparing for the upcoming sports seasons.

With many fall and winter sports hesitantly expected to begin in December, Junior Varsity Football Coach Jeremy Kerr described what students participating in sports can do to prepare. 

“Students can prepare for all sports by conditioning at home, watching videos of their sports (tutorial or precious play),” he said.

Many school sports, in anticipation for the beginning of their seasons, have begun to meet for conditioning. Coach Kerr continued to explain how football is handling these conditioning practices.

“Our team is meeting in small ‘pods’ and conditioning twice a week,” he said. “Our conditioning mimics the footwork of real-life play in football. We just got the green light to use footballs, but each ball has to stay within each pod. It’s definitely good to be outside with people – especially for our mental health. As the county loosens restrictions, we are able to do more football type drills, but we stay strict to stay within the county’s health guidelines.”

Athletic Director Scott Savoie had a few things to add regarding what sports are beginning their preparation. 

“While several other sports are already practicing, preparing for sports depends on what sport you do,” he said. “For example, Water Polo teams aren’t practicing right now but our local swim club is.” 

He continued to add his suggestions for what students could do to prepare outside of school practices. 

“For most sports, general conditioning would probably be weights, cardio, sprint work, [and] agility,” he said. 

Cheerleading Coach Wendi Press and Sophomore Cheerleader Carmen Winner explained what the cheerleaders are doing at their practices. 

“We mostly have just been getting ready for the games,” said Winner. “[We’re] not really [doing] stunts, but working on our routine and cheers and teamwork.”

“We are able to get back to conditioning and stunts,” Coach Press added. “We also spent the summer working and practicing on strength training.”

A few additional students elaborated upon what they have been doing to prepare with their team. 

“We [Junior Varsity Football team] have practice, but we aren’t allowed to touch each other,” said Sophomore Kaiya Hart. “It has been mostly working out, but we do have footballs.” 

Sophomore Sarah Desart reported a similar recollection as Coach Kerr regarding the structure of volleyball practice.

“We have been conditioning as a group,” she said. “We do training pods in the small gym with around 5 girls in a bunch of different groups. So, for example, my group goes on Monday after school. Then the other groups go on other days. We also run a mile every week, do a bunch of sprints and bleachers, and small workouts.”

On the other hand, some students haven’t been informed about what they are doing, such as Sophomore Grace Pratt. 

“I haven’t been informed of any conditioning for soccer or what’s even happening for the season, but that may be because it is a spring sport.” 

Coach Kerr described how practices are beginning to feel more normal each time the team meets.

“We’re doing our best to stay within our county’s guidelines while inching towards more normalcy of our game. Each week, the practice has felt more and more like regular football practice.”