Spring Sports
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By Bill Fisher
fter a pandemic year without an Upper School sports program, students and coaches were thrilled to take the fields again starting March 29 as intramural spring-season practices for lacrosse, baseball, softball, and track and field began. “The vibe was incredibly positive,” says Athletic Director Nancy McNall. “The opportunity for the kids to be outdoors, connecting through athletics, was glorious.” McNall had been eager to restart an Upper School sports program ever since the COVID-19 pandemic effectively shut down all competition in spring 2020. While McNall and fellow physical education teachers Mike Pannozzi and Lynn Pisanelli were able to provide students with remote workouts and practice videos that spring and, when school reopened in the fall, relatively normal physical education classes for the Lower School, a return to Upper School sports remained out of reach. High rates of COVID-19 transmission in the region made close competitive play too risky. In the spring, however, with coronavirus numbers dropping and plenty of evidence from the fall to suggest that Shore’s safety measures were effective, it became possible to consider a restart. Families and students were all for it, says McNall. “One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about working at Shore is that the
students and families are so supportive of the athletic program. Everyone was ready to get back out there.” The first step toward a spring season was devising safety protocols that would continue protecting children from COVID-19 even while competing. That meant dropping interscholastic play and travel in favor of scrimmages among Shore teams only, and it also meant closing locker rooms, requiring masks, and keeping players as physically distanced as possible while on the sidelines. Step two was finding willing coaches among Shore’s faculty and staff. Explains McNall, “Because we depend
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