Softball: Mayfair vs. La Mirada

On March 25, our varsity softball team played a rough game against La Mirada. After some poor calls and defensive errors, the ending score was 1-5, with La Mirada winning. This now puts them in third place in the Suburban League with an overall record of 10-6

The first run was scored in the first inning by Lily Roth, a junior, from Mayfair. Then the next five runs were scored by La Mirada in the third, fourth, fifth, and seventh innings. Mayfair began strong, but after several defensive errors, their performance worsened. This allowed La Mirada to take the win.

According to freshman and short-stop Abby Feolo, the team’s, “energy was there… but we could have been more aggressive with hitting”. And when asked about the impact of Covid-19 on her team, she replied that it took a pretty big “dent” on them in terms of practice time. Because of teammates getting sick, fewer people got an adequate amount of practice and as a result, didn’t get as much playing time. Although not everyone got sick, it did affect the team as a whole.

Luckily for Mayfair, Covid didn’t affect us as badly as other schools. A few other teams are getting destroyed and it's clear that it's due to the lack of practice from Covid. Take Firebaugh for example: before the pandemic, they were a fairly average team. But now they’re losing almost every game in almost every sport. They’re not alone though. It is safe to say that everyone was affected by Covid to some degree, especially students and athletes. Students struggled with working from home and maintaining their motivation, while athletes had to do the same all while attempting to keep in shape for when their sport’s season returned. So when schools finally opened and practices commenced, some struggled to catch up.

On top of the inability to practice as a team, many student-athletes, “reported elevated self-reported anxious and depressive symptoms” (The Impact of COVID-19 on High School Student-Athlete Experiences). It's nearly impossible to stay in shape properly when you are isolated, stressed out, and maybe even depressed. But now that most, if not all, Covid restrictions have been lifted, we can all recover. Businesses and people can flourish once again and feel normal.

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8036482/