Looking to the Future of Sports at GOA

By Isabelle Zellan, ‘23

Due to a sudden surge in COVID-19 infections following winter break, Golda Och Academy was forced to make tough decisions regarding the temporary suspension of athletic practices and games. At press time, sports have slowly begun back up, to the delight of some and the chagrin of others.

“I really enjoy playing on the basketball team, and it’s disappointing when we are not able to play because of COVID-19.  However, I’m also glad that school is taking our safety seriously; other schools aren’t as careful,” junior Sabrina Smokler said.
While GOA’s fall season was not able to include all of its usual indoor sports, like volleyball, the winter season has fielded both male and female basketball teams. This is possible in part thanks to GOA’s vaccine requirement for athletes, as well as its mask mandate, which has kept COVID-19 infections relatively low. Other schools that do not have a vaccine requirement or are not strict about mask wearing have not been able to safely conduct athletics, let alone indoor sports.
Winter is the hardest time of year to keep student athletes safe from infections. Indoor sports are often high-intensity and high-contact, greatly increasing the chances of catching a contagious disease. Since COVID-19, especially the Omicron variant, is extremely infectious, indoor sports are even more dangerous than usual.
Looking forward to the spring season, sports are likely going to be safer and more available. As with any infectious disease, when people are outdoors rather than indoors, rates of infection will go down. Additionally, most spring sports are lower contact than winter sports, so the danger of catching COVID-19 is even lower and student safety more easily ensured.
As more and more students and faculty receive a booster shot, the weather becomes warmer and athletics transition to lower contact sports, continuing to conduct practices and games will become easier and less worrying for student-athletes and parents. 
“My parents didn’t want me to play in games this year because they were worried about me interacting so closely with teams from other schools that might not have as strict COVID-19 policies, but playing games for spring sports is a lot less worrying to them,” junior Gabrielle Zellan said. “I can’t wait to be able to play again.”