by John Houle
Student athletes in the spring have struggled to prepare for the season because of the limited gym space.
“The small size of the gym,” Winders said, “makes it hard to perform scrimmages, forcing practice to focus on conditioning.”
The track teams must focus on running and not the field events. The lacrosse teams are also negatively affected due to missing crucial aspects, such as the 50-yard line and the crevice.
The bad weather has led to the cancellation of the first scrimmages and games. While the scrimmages can be easily canceled, the games would carry long term consequences.
“We must play the scheduled games by the MIAA’s late May deadline,” Winders said, “so the games will need to be rescheduled, resulting in teams potentially playing 4-5 games a week.”
While the gym is disadvantageous for athletes, the gym does provide benefits in other areas.
“The access to the dance studio and the indoor track,” Winders said, “makes our gym bigger than the gyms from other schools.”
The limited space available inside the gym results in athletes ultimately having late practices. The times are based on two factors: the number of kids a team has and the age of the athletes.
“Baseball has the latest practice,” Winders said, “because it has the biggest number of kids, requiring the use of the whole gym.”
“I make sure the 8th and 9th graders go early,” Winders said, “as they are unable to drive, making transportation more difficult.”
Fortunately, a solution to the limited gym space is possible but not for several years.
“A turf field will allow athletes more opportunities to practice outside,” Winders said, “but there are multiple conditions that must be met, delaying the field for 5 to 10 years.”