BOZEMAN, Mont. – Nate Laslovich isn’t stressed about his athletes following coronavirus protocols.
The new Gallatin head wrestling coach and former coach at Bozeman pointed out his teams are used to staying clean. They mop floors, they use disinfectant wipes, they wash clothes with specific detergents and shower shortly after competition. Laslovich figured nothing his teams will do to prevent the spread of COVID-19 will be overwhelming.
High school sports in Montana completed all of their fall seasons. However, winter sports pose different obstacles. Football, cross-country, soccer and golf are all outside, and volleyball requires teams to be separate from each other.
Basketball, swimming and wrestling are all inside and usually occur in close quarters. And coaches, like new Gallatin girls basketball head coach and former Bozeman boys coach Wes Holmquist, will have to figure out how to allow athletes to participate under new circumstances if and when their seasons begin.
“This year is going to look a lot different than anything we’ve ever done,” Holmquist said.
Hawks girls basketball head coach Erika Gustavsen said her program has taken many of the same measures that fall sports did like taking temperatures, keeping players in specific groups each time they practice and sanitizing equipment. She called them added nuances which add to her already busy daily life.
Gustavsen is hopeful her team can start to develop a routine, although it may be different than previous years. She’s optimistic considering the result of fall sports.
She wants her players to remain safe and healthy and thus they can play as many games as possible. She said some families didn’t feel comfortable allowing their children to play sports during the pandemic, which Gustavsen understood. Others have pushed for kids to be in school five days a week as Bozeman uses a blended in-person/online model.
“It doesn’t really matter when you’re in here what your family thinks of masks, COVID or whatever. We have to follow the protocols of our school district and county,” Gustavsen said. “I think everyone’s ultimate goal is we get to play. So we have to do everything on our end to make sure we’re following the rules to make sure we can play. And I think families are going to be respectful of that.
“I think families just want normalcy for their kids. They want their kids to have the high school experience, a normal one. And it hasn’t been normal. I think everyone has good intentions. So I just think the goal is to play and keep everybody healthy and playing. I think people are going to be respectful of that, I hope.”
Holmquist added, though, that basketball is a difficult sport to factor in social distancing during practice. And keeping players separated while they practice, he said, makes preparation for competition more difficult because they won’t be as ready to go up against opponents.
The Hawks boys’ previous season ended early in the consolation bracket of the Class AA tournament last year because of coronavirus concerns, which Holmquist said was “really hard.” But this offseason posed its own challenges. The Raptors girls didn’t play a single game during the summer, which Holmquist thought would have been a pivotal time for the first-year program to develop without any seniors.
As of Dec. 2, Holmquist had yet to see his players participate in a live setting. They weren’t in a gym together until mid-June.
Holmquist has talked to several other coaches and Bozeman School District activities director Mark Ator about different health protocol ideas.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready to go. It’s a strange time for all of us,” Holmquist said with a laugh. “There’s just so many factors in play. None of us know anything. You’re living day by day.”
According to the CDC, no evidence exists that COVID-19 can be spread through the use of recreational waters and proper operation of public pools with the use of chlorine should inactivate the virus. However, Bozeman and Gallatin head swimming coach Siobhan Gilmartin emphasized this is no reason to be less cautious. Gilmartin said athletes will be expected to wear masks until they enter the water.
The coach also is trying to figure out how to work with two programs at once, one of them being brand new. In the last four years, Gilmartin said Bozeman’s swimming participation doubled. She’s had to find creative ways to utilize limited space and how to allow for weight training with more athletes. She wants to maximize the work they can do while minimizing risk of exposure to COVID-19.
“This has been a time of a lot of uncertainty, and that can be really hard for us as coaches and for family,” Gilmartin said. “It feels like every decision you make right now, there’s so much weight to it in terms of your own personal health, safety, physically and mentally.
“I just keep telling families and kids I can’t promise you our season won’t end two days after it starts, two months after it starts, so I just want to make each day the most positive experience possible.”
Laslovich pointed out the Raptors are trying to prepare to be as competitive as possible with a program with no seniors and less time on the mat this preseason than usual.
After discussing protocols with several coaches involved in the sport, he said his team’s participants will spend plenty of time practicing alone to develop skills. Laslovich said the Raptors will only be designated one other partner to practice with so contact tracing becomes simple.
“You’re learning all the time,” Laslovich said. “We’re trying to do a good job of keeping people safe. That’s the No. 1 goal.”
Holmquist pointed out the difficulty that professional sports leagues like the NFL have had playing games as scheduled because of COVID-19 cases and contact tracing. Those teams have a wealth of resources to deal with those issues.
Montana high school sports, Holmquist noted, don’t. As of now, the Montana High School Association plans for winter sports to begin in January.
“Frankly, who knows what’s going to happen?” Holmquist said. “Are we going to get to play games? Are we going to get to play some games and get some canceled? I don’t know. I don’t have the answer.”
