Thundering footsteps echo through Chesapeake High on Thursday night as indoor track and field athletes race through the halls. Outside, someone etched “TRACK :)” by stepping the letters in the six-inch layer of iced snow where the track used to be. Bad enough they couldn’t use Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex for a month. Now even their own track’s gone.
The Cougars, and most of Anne Arundel County, have experienced only one joint meet this winter, two weeks ago. Most teams have managed to send their teams to at least one other meet here and there, but haven’t had much of a chance to size up their neighboring opponents. Weather-related school closings claimed last Tuesday and Wednesday, and now this week’s Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
County championships are Monday.
“Another season where indoor track gets the short end of it,” Broadneck coach Josh Webster said.
Save for 2020-21, when no one competed, this season may be the worst of the last four in Webster’s eyes. At least in the 2021-22 “outdoor” indoor season, he could prepare. Now, the best preparation he can do is switch a voluntary Monday practice — to which only some showed — from a pre-meet session to a heavy workout.
A “second” county meet will follow the county championships, on Friday. While other sports could use Thursday as a practice day, most track teams, with their tracks being outside, either could not practice, or did using limited track space, like Broadneck.
Normally by this point, Broadneck trims its roster down by 40% to focus on the athletes with a chance at the championship level. If snow comes, having fewer running lanes doesn’t matter as much because there are fewer kids. But Webster can’t do that this year.
And by now, his athletes would have at least five meets under their belt and decide which events they’d run Monday from there. And all the while, he’ll have the fear of injuries in the back of his mind.
“We end up having to use practice reps and the eyeball test on a lot of kids, based on our experience as coaches rather than cold hard data like we normally would,” Webster said. “You’d be able to see progress, and a pretty good idea as to what the rest of the county would have to offer, so strategy would be there as well.”
Basketball, by far, is not in the same position as track. But losing key weeks in January isn’t good, either.
The South River boys season mirrors last year’s. This time last year, the Seahawks dropped three-straight games that kept them out of the county championship. With Northeast and Severna Park scheduled for last week, coach Darren Hall and his staff prepped his team hard to meet these matchups ferociously and avoid that same cursed complacency.
But now, Northeast is two Mondays from now and Severna Park is set for mid-February — and no longer slated for a energy-juiced Friday night.
Yes, losing the games is hard; losing the practice time is harder.
“You don’t get those back. I guess everybody’s in the same boat though,” Hall said. “We’re hitting the ground running on Monday with one practice in the past week.”
It’s not the same without a coach tinkering mistakes and giving advice, or without the entire team together to absorb it all. But the athletes make do.
With schools closed, some players round up teammates to shoot hoops at local gyms, though Severna Park’s Ruby Bauer does it in her house. Annapolis sophomore McKenzie Fuller hits her bike at home for 20-minute periods intermittently throughout the day until 4 p.m., then hits her gym, then studies film.
A lot of them embrace the snow. Some wrestlers, like Southern’s Ally Stevens and Crofton’s Grace Ackermann shovel snow, as does the Chesapeake swim team. Crofton wrestling state champion Lexy Pabon does it while listening to motivational podcasts. Glen Burnie boys basketball’s Greg Pittman uses the snow, too: as a buffer to harden his mile run. South River’s James Crimaudo sleds, which “gets the blood flow up.”
Meade girls coach Cat Harmon only been able to hold practice twice in the last two weeks — last Saturday and Thursday. The second time she saw them, just after starting the session, she paused, smiled and said, “Oh, hello!” The whole ordeal gives coach flashbacks to the pandemic era, especially as her husband, Oakland Mills boys basketball coach Kyle Harmon, receives videos from his players as proof of workout.
“It’s almost like going back to those times, forcing them to find creative ways to work out. Only now, we’re kind of stuck. You can’t really go run in the snow,” said Harmon, who then laughed when she heard about Pittman. “You’re limited in what you can do.”
Hall tries to look at the positives. This week ended the quarter, meaning tests and academic anxiety for his players. With sports pretty much wiped out, they had the time to focus on schoolwork. They can rest their bodies and any nagging injuries. It’s like a “midseason break,” Hall said.
Yes, the snow is forcing three-game, maybe even four-game weeks if there’s more weather coming down the road. But his players compete in AAU circuits and tournaments that field the same schedule. They’re used to it. Game-heavy injuries aren’t yet a concern.
Plus, the playoff stretch is just as busy.
“The guys want to play. I don’t think it’s a big issue for us,” Hall said. “That stretch when you go through the region and into quarterfinals, there’s maybe one, two days in between each. From that perspective, this isn’t a terrible thing.”
The Meade girls play nine games over the next 14 days. The Mustangs won’t be able to practice until next Thursday.
“It is absolutely insane,” Harmon said. “I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling this way, but I’m concerned about injuries and overload.”
Harmon knows she’ll try to implement yoga before games and practice to try and avoid those muscle issues, but there’s only so much she can do. Most teenagers aren’t drinking enough water on their own, resting properly, eating right. And she’s worried this stretch is only the beginning.
“There’s a reason not to have this many games in a row. And we’re trying to fit everything in. But in a week-and-a-half, two weeks, we’re still in the thick of winter. Who knows?” she said.