As students and staff still wait for in-person classes to be available, sports have gotten the go-ahead. 

These workouts began the week before winter break and started up again on January 11th. 

The week of the 4th, in-person workouts were canceled due to questions that the school district had about a piece of legislation that passed during winter break and how it would affect sports, according to Athletics director Ty Gonrowski.

Because of limitations due to COVID-19, only a select few sports have gotten the go-ahead to have in-person workouts: football, cross country and track, softball, wrestling, girls’ soccer, baseball, girls’ basketball, and dance. 

The decision for which sports would be offered in-person was based on which coaches wanted to host them, Gonrowski said.

Some wondered how the school could get sports to work in-person while COVID-19 rages. The plan, starting January 11th, is to have two-week cycles where students can sign up to practice with the available sports. Students may only choose one sport at a time, but once the two weeks is up they can either change to another, keep with the one they were already doing, or do no sports at all. Each team can only have so many people at each practice, which is part of why the cycles are so short.

At every practice, students are required to go through a COVID-19 screening, where their temperature will be taken and they will be asked about any COVID-19 symptoms. Everyone involved must wear their mask the entire practice, except for when taking water or snack breaks at their stations. These stations are positioned on every 5-yard line to provide adequate space between people and are marked with small cones. No direct contact between people is allowed. No equipment is being used as of yet, so workouts are used as conditioning, rather than actually playing the sport. 

   “At first I was skeptical of the practicality but I have since been pleasantly surprised. The setup and precautions were well executed and it was really fun to see some old friends that I haven’t been with since March,” junior Carmen Ramseyer said.

Prior to in-person workouts being offered, teams used a workout app called Train Heroic.

“With Train Heroic we can deliver workouts digitally for those that are unable to join us in person just yet,” Head Coach for cross country and track Tim Mowery said.

But some people have wondered why in-person workouts have been prioritized so much. 

“Our goals are to let students feel like Gresham is a community for them and that they can come to these workouts and feel like part of Gresham High School. And kids who are in different places with their mental health, possibly coming to something like that might be a nice positive,” Gonrowski said.

Of course, some sports are still not available in person, and when they will be available is still up in the air, and could be for months. This is because some sports, like swim and water polo, are very limited in where and how they can practice in-person.

For more information about how to sign up for in-person workouts go to the school website, or follow this link.