High school sports are back on the field.
“Soccer is soccer, no matter how long, if you have the love for the game, you're going to be alright,” said Jacob Conde, the Bloomfield boys soccer coach.
Six months since the winter season was cut short, fall sports are getting to play games. There’s plenty of differences, notably, no football teams readying for Friday night lights. The CIAC postponed its full-contact fall season and outlined plans for the spring this week.
There’s also the matter of spectators. The policies vary from school to school. At Berlin, they’re allowing a limited number of home team family members, who all must have a ticket. Thursday, Berlin boys soccer opened the season against Newington, who, for its home games, will not allow any spectators, home or away.
“Before we left I said to my husband, I can't believe we've actually going to something,” said Amy Cancellieri, a Berlin soccer parent. Cancellieri is from Newington and she said, just this time, she’ll root for the visitors too.
Volleyball players are seeing the biggest difference on the court. They must play full games wearing masks when indoors.
Sports
“It's definitely different especially with the masks on,” said Brooke Soucy, a Bristol Central volleyball senior. “It makes it a lot harder but it's worth it to be able to play. We can all push through it.”
But even when everything is different, the chance to play makes things feel just a bit more familiar.
“It's going to bring me back to last season when everything was pretty normal,” said Berlin boys soccer senior Peter Cohen. “But at the same time we still got to walk onto the fields with masks, I’ve got to make sure everyone is being socially distant so it's a little bit of the same but also a lot different.”
