In sports, athletes pining for their fields of dreams

By Ron Brocato
   

As the days pass and the coronavirus continues to run its deadly course through the state and its cities, the prospect of a successful spring sports season is the last thing on the minds of high school administrators, if not the first on the minds of student athletes in their senior year of high school.

As the weeks creep by and the school year nears an end, the Louisiana High School Athletic Association still harbors a thought, though fleeting, that the spring state championships will take place after Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards allows schools to reopen on the target date of April 13. Several local athletic directors don’t think that is a possibility.

With schools closed and students continuing their studies through vir ­tual classrooms, there is no contingency plan for athletes to prepare for the possibility of state playoffs and cham ­pionships in the spring sports of baseball, softball, track and field, golf, tennis and bowling. At this time, coaches have no sports to coach, and the student athletes are on their own to prepare for what may or may not happen in the final weeks of the school year.

“We ’re running classes online, and part of my job is to take attendance from my house every day. So I ’m staying busy , ” said Archbishop Hannan athletic director Joe Hines. “Coquille Park is next to the school. If the athletes want to go to the playground to work out, they can. The playground is closed, but the kids can still go there on their own.”

A fluid situation
   
Ursuline Academy AD Jay Jay Juan, who is also the head volleyball coach, said he hasn’t spoken to the athletes about conditioning since the Archdiocese of New Orleans closed the schools.
   
“This all happened so fast,” Juan said. “We had a softball game against Country Day on the Friday before this broke. At 2 o’clock, I told the kids to get ready to leave. At 2:15, the game was canceled. The players were asking me, ‘Is this our last game?’ I told them, ‘I don’t think so, but as fluid as things are, I really don’t know.’”
   
Not only are the athletes, particularly the seniors, disappointed, but the coaches are as well.
  
“Our softball coach, Becky Lambert, is very disappointed,” Hines said.” She has an opportunity to win a second consecutive state championship. For that, I hope the LHSAA can extend the season.” Lambert’s team had won 10 of its first 12 games before the virus caused the school to close.
 
Another coach upset that the season may not conclude is Frank Cazeaux. Not only is he a Rummel alum, but Cazeaux coached the Raiders’ baseball teams from 1994-2004. During that time, his teams won five consecutive Catholic League titles, advanced to the state tournament five times and won a state championship in 1997.
 
He has had success at St. Martin’s, Hahnville and Riverside Academy before returning to Rummel, where his current squad opened the season with a 9-3 record.
 
“Frank was looking forward to coaching with us again,” said Rummel AD Jay Roth. “But I don’t see us going back to school. Although our administrators and teachers are working, the coaches have nothing to do. Spring training for football is supposed to start on April 27. But there is no weight training and no conditioning going on. And it’s that way for high schools, colleges and professionals while this (virus) is going on.”
 
Dominican AD Paul Spitzfaden is also skeptical the school year will return to normalcy in the remaining weeks.

“I have two friends who are doctors that have students at Dominican,” Spitzfaden said. “Neither can see us going back to school on April 13. Both said it looks like the end of May, if at all,” he said.

Trying to stay in shape

Virtual classes are able to accommodate the students’ academic needs, but there are no facilities for athletes to train as units and teams while the schools are closed.

 “All the playgrounds are shut down, so I tell (the athletes) to do what you can to condition yourself,” Spitzfaden said. “Harahan Playground (which Dominican’s softball team uses as its home field), has an open container, and if a player wants to take a batting tee and hit a few balls, it’s OK with them.”

Cabrini AD Kirk Maronge, who spent last Thursday cutting grass on the school’s adjacent softball field, said he has appealed to the players to please to do something on their own, “even if it’s in their own backyards. Our strength coach is sending workout lessons in the event we are able to come back. 

“The softball district we are in with Orleans Parish public schools is one we dominate,” Maronge said. “April 14 is the end of the softball season. If LHSAA goes by the current power rating system for the playoffs, it will be the first time in our school’s history that we won’t make the playoffs.”

Jesuit AD and former head baseball coach Dave Moreau feels for his school’s baseball players, who opened the season by winning 12 of 14 games. “It was going to be a good year, not only for us, but for the entire district. Now the players can’t even throw a ball around. If one of the kids is infected, the rest would become infected, too. You can’t mess with this stuff.”

April Hagadone, a veteran volleyball coach, but first-year athletic director at Mount Carmel Academy, said her players have kept their spirits up. “But our seniors are bummed out, and I feel for our spring athletes. I guess this is God’s way of telling us to slow down.”

Spitzfaden said one Dominican senior will receive an athletic scholarship to Spring Hill College. “Maybe we will have a virtual signing for her and a PowerPoint presentation to honor our senior athletes,” he said.

Ron Brocato can be reached at rbrocato@clarionherald.org.