For the Raptors softball team, 2021 has brought in new players, a new district and new COVID-19 regulations for both practices and games. As with all other sports, the softball team has recently had to adapt to the ongoing pandemic. On top of that, the team is still new because of last year’s LBJ-LASA UIL split. However, according to senior and captain Maddie Dixon, the team was able to maintain some sense of normalcy during tryouts, which took place on Jan. 19 and 20.

“We keep masks on every time that we practice, but other than that, it was just the same,” Dixon said. Less girls and more wearing masks. I know a lot of kids can’t play because of COVID-19, but other than that, it is pretty much the same.”

Softball tryouts focus on running various drills to see what physical level each player is starting at. According to senior Alisha Morejon, because there weren’t as many players this year, tryouts were less about who can make the cut and more about demonstrating commitment to the team and understanding each player’s strengths and weaknesses.

“We just don’t have very many girls,” Morejon said. “We’ve been doing captain’s practices for about a month or two now, so we kind of said everybody who’s been to captain’s practices and putting in the work off season is on the team, and some new girls came and they got on the team too. We’ve never really been tryout-heavy.”

In terms of COVID-19 restrictions, masks are mandatory during all games and practices. According to Morejon, the risk of contracting COVID-19 is not as high in softball because it is a non-contact sport, but the precautions are still taken extremely seriously on the Raptors’ softball field.

“We’re not a contact sport and every position plays pretty far away from all the other ones, so it’s not that different,” Morejon said.

According to head coach Vincent Cruz, only a limited number of people will be allowed to attend games. Fans, players, coaches and umpires will have to wear masks, practice social distancing and avoid sharing equipment. 

“At games, it’s two parents per kid if they’re being dropped off but no one else in terms of students and anything like that,” Cruz said. “The brothers and sisters can’t even come anymore. Social distancing and masks at all times with the parents. Just like the athletes, the parents have to deal with it as well. There are also sanitizing stations everywhere.” 

Because not a lot of spectators are allowed at games, the team has found other ways to make sure extended family members, friends and other fans can watch each game, according to Cruz.  

“We’re going to livestream every game on the AISD athletics app and YouTube,” Cruz said. “That way, the students and the fans can log in and watch the games.”

Another change facing the softball team this season is that they’ve been placed in a new district due to the recent LASA-LBJ split. According to Cruz, the new district brings new, challenging competition to the team. 

“We have one Cedar Park tournament, four scrimmages, and then the rest are district teams,” Cruz said. “We’re now in 5A, so we have a pretty tough district in terms that we have Anderson and we have Lockhart, but we dropped Dripping Springs which I’m pretty excited about.”

According to Cruz, team bonding has had to become more practice-based due to a lack of in-person socialization throughout the remainder of the school year. According to Dixon, while bonding might look different in a normal year, they’re still finding new ways to create friendships.

“I think because we’re still playing together, and that’s the only social interaction that any of us have, we are all very excited to get to know one another, and for us that already know one another to reconnect,” Dixon said. “We still bond.”

According to captain Frankie Gigliotti, bonding used to be about hanging out in locker rooms and before practice. Now, it mainly shows up at practice and at games only.

“Since most everyone on our team is doing online instead of in-person, we don’t really get that bonding in the locker room and all that hanging out before practice,” Gigliotti said. “We all just drive up and we’re there.”

Apart from team bonding, COVID-19 almost canceled some of the games themselves. As part of the Stage 5 regulations, only varsity UIL sports were allowed to be played, but those orders have since been pulled back.

“During the spike, the district closed down the JV games and said we can only play district teams,” Cruz said, “but we just got an email, ‘JV is back up and running, and our full schedule is able to be played.’”