By Keenan A. Mount
The fall sports season at Lewis and Clark has already begun in near full swing, with the only teams not in their scrimmage or regular seasons being the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
The men’s and women’s regular soccer season has begun and with mixed results. Among the games that were played both teams are doing well, with wins over Lake County for the women’s team and Oakton for the men’s team. However, a number of other soccer teams have had to cancel games, with the women’s team reportedly seeing five cancelations already.
Two huge questions going into this season were “how will mask mandates and other COVID-19 measures change?” and “how will these changes affect the season?”. In large part things will remain the same excluding the major change of being able to start and have a full season with fan attendance. This is cause for much excitement among not only the fans but also Coach Stotler, the Athletic Director. Stotler stated that he is “very grateful for fans being able to participate”.
Fans, when attending sporting events, will be required to wear a mask and practice social distancing with anyone outside of their attending party. Athletes, when indoors, will also be required to wear a mask during games and practice. Outdoor athletes are not required to wear a mask but will practice social distancing when benched. The coaches aren’t required to wear masks outdoors but are all voluntarily wearing masks and are rarely seen without them in an effort to encourage mask wearing among attendees.
The much anticipated first home games will begin early September with women’s and men’s soccer on the first and third respectively. Home volleyball games begin with the same dates. Home men’s and women’s golf matches will be coming later in September.
