Girls’ volleyball team quarantines for two weeks

Liv Miller

In contrast to the girls’ sophomore volleyball team (above) in 2019, the team now mandates that players stay socially distant.

On Tuesday, Sept. 22, the 2019-2020 girls’ volleyball sophomore team suspended practices for 14 days after one player contracted COVID-19. Before the season was put on hold, the team met for practices two days a week to prepare for upcoming tryouts and assembled in the field house to space out and minimize the virus’s transmission.

Mrs. Lisa Tazelaar, physical education teacher and volleyball coach, spoke with the school about what precautions to take. The athletics department sent the players an email explaining the next steps to ensure the team’s health.

The Illinois Department of Public Health assesses the COVID-19 precautions of each sport by placing it in a high, medium, or low-risk category. Volleyball is considered to be a medium risk because although players are staggered on the court, the volleyball transmits contact. (courtesy of the Illinois Department of Public Health)

“The athletic department works with the nurse’s office and the DuPage County Health Department to determine what and who will be quarantined,” Tazelaar said. “We work to determine the safest timeline and procedures based on the recommendations of the  health professionals.” 

The volleyball team plans to resume practices on Tuesday, Oct. 6, while complying with Illinois Department of Public Health’s (IDPH) guidelines. During practices, the team is required to wear masks and sanitize equipment after each use.

“We must fill out a temperature and symptoms log before returning to school on Monday,” said Caitlin Barrett, junior on last year’s sophomore team. “Overall, we are just trying to be as cautious as possible; we must wear our masks the entire practice, and the coaches do their best to come up with drills that encourage social distancing.” 

In the field house, the team sanitizes their volleyballs after practice and staggers the lineup to maintain distance. 

“We’re all on quarantine right now until Monday, which is hard because that means I can’t go to my first day of school since I’m in group A,” said Morgan Carlson, junior on last year’s sophomore team.  

The players have been practicing on their own time to make up for missed in-person practices. 

“Since we cancelled practices all of last week, my friends and I are just taking the time to go to the gym on our own and it’s going great,” said Liv Miller, junior on last year’s sophomore team. 

For more information, you can visit the girls’ volleyball website.